


As Long As I Have You

by HK44



Category: Batman - All Media Types
Genre: Established Relationship, Family Drama, Fluff and Angst, M/M, Trans Male Character, Vaginal Sex, trans!damian
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-04-14
Updated: 2020-05-23
Packaged: 2021-03-01 19:55:29
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 39,281
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23642692
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/HK44/pseuds/HK44
Summary: They could’ve come out as just Duke and Damian, pretend Dick wasn’t even a factor but neither of them wanted to. They loved him like crazy. Being public with each other would’ve been worth it but not if they had to keep fighting off the urge to kiss him too, to hold his hands, to call him sweet things where people could hear and see that swell of red pattern up his neck.
Relationships: Dick Grayson/Damian Wayne, Dick Grayson/Duke Thomas, Dick Grayson/Duke Thomas/Damian Wayne, Duke Thomas/Damian Wayne
Comments: 8
Kudos: 62





	1. Chapter One

_Bling. Bling._

Bruce glanced up from his book. On the arms of the sofa beside him, Damian’s phone was buzzing up a storm. He’d left it there to go deal with Titus at Alfred’s behest. A thick feeling broke out in Bruce’s chest as the screen turned a bright green and a name popped up to accompany the ringing.

It was, by all accounts, completely within Bruce’s nature to snoop, but he tried to refrain from that when it came to his children. And he had spent many nights refraining from it even more when it came to Damian, hoping he would find it in himself to grow and trust Bruce’s judgement and presence outside of the field. As it was, they’d been making progress but for the last few weeks something shifty had been happening.

It started when he plainly told Bruce he was going to Gotham U, having never mentioned anything of the sort before, four days before the university opened and had escalated when Bruce borrowed his laptop and discovered a tab open for apartment listings.

So the thick feeling in his chest was needy. Desperate. He just needed to _know_ something. Anything that could facilitate a conversation. Even talking to Jason was easier and they were opposed on most things at any given point in the day.

Damian had been receiving a dozen different calls throughout the week. Bruce speculated that they were about the apartments, though internally he was put off by it. Surely Damian, who hated to talk to anyone, would have approached someone else to deal with the pleasantries. Besides, after each call, Damian seemed content. Which was strange. He was only like that after a call from Dick. Or his team, but as far as Bruce was aware, Jon was grounded from all tech and the others were on some mission far outside the range of any cell service. Both were things Damian had complained about to anyone within earshot for the last couple of weeks.

Which left Dick. But even he had less of a reason to call so many times.

Thinking of Dick, it fluttered to Bruce’s mind. The late-night and almost constant phone calls, the silence and sneaking around, the refusal to be upfront – was Damian dating someone? But even that seemed illogical. Damian liked no one enough to be romantic that Bruce could even contemplate. Aside from Dick, naturally, but whatever crush he’d amassed towards his former mentor has dissipated quickly when Dick returned the cowl to Bruce and vanished off to Bludhaven, and Dick would never have even considered returning Damian’s affections.

Bruce swallowed around his own conflicted emotions and shifted. To get a more comfortable position, he told himself, as he closed his book around his thumb and twisted just enough to get a glimpse of the name on-

The door pushed open and he glanced to the doorway, Damian striding in. He spared no look at Bruce, just simply sucked his teeth and collected his phone. He rolled his eyes and didn’t answer as the buzzing died off in his hands, just pocketed the phone, bid Bruce a pleasant evening and walked back off to his room or the Cave.

Bruce nodded and watched the door fall shut, returning to his book, and wondering why both Dick _and_ Duke had sent Damian so many messages.

* * *

Duke jumped from one rooftop to another. He stumbled a bit and scowled, trying to score another attempt at the light bridge he’d been working on manifesting. He succeed on the second try, gliding across the photons to the next roof over. Landing was a bit harder to manage. Instead of jumping off gracefully as the bridge shimmered back into nothingness, he found himself face-planting on the concrete.

Groaning, he rolled over and pushed back the lens of his helmet, rubbing his face and checking his lip for any cuts they may have been made on his teeth.

“Hello, Signal,” Damian purred from a few feet away. Duke glanced up and grinned as Damian leaned on the non-lethal sword Bruce finally let him use. It couldn’t cut but it delivered a nasty blow when struck. “What are you doing out so late?”

Duke snorted. “I could ask the same of you, Robin.” Damian just grinned, wicked and wide, before sheathing the sword and strolling slow and deliberate over. Duke caught his hand. “Nice night for a stroll.”

Somewhere, a few feet away and dozen feet below to the streets, some drunks were pummeling each other outside of a bar and about a block away Tim and Cass were dealing with a small time bank robbery.

Duke still thought nothing wrong with his statement.

Damian laughed and curled his fingers over Duke’s contentedly. “It is, isn’t it?”

Unable to take it anymore, Duke leaned down and caught Damian’s mouth. Damian smiled against him then pulled back and tugged down Duke’s helmet. “Be appropriate,” he chided, turning away.

Duke tugged him back. “That’s not what you were saying when you begged me to eat you out that time.”

Damian scowled but didn’t fight back. “That was _three_ years ago.”

“Yeah and the only reason you haven’t asked again is because Bruce almost caught us,” Duke teased, rubbing a soothing circle around the back of Damian’s hand before finally releasing him. 

Huffing Damian peered over the edge of the rooftop then looked back to Duke. “Much going on?”

“Nah.” Duke brushed the dirt off his knees. “RR and Orphan are dealing with this bank robbery. Told me they’d let me know if they need me but it’s a small bank and they left over an hour ago so I’m doubting it was anything big.”

“Staying on alert?”

“Always,” Duke said, watching the shimmer of Damian stroll back to him before he actually did.

Duke caught him easy and let his helmet fall back so Damian could kiss him. He kept himself on high alert for anyone that might straggle by or see them, especially anyone from the group but let himself fall into Damian regardless. Damian whined low against his mouth, always easy to work up. Duke found himself seconds away from dragging Damian somewhere secluded and trying to get him to make that noise again. His hands curved around Damian’s waist, feeling Damian’s hands tug needy at his costume.

Within Duke’s focus, a stark figure was flipping through the air towards them. He pulled back and glimpsed towards it. Damian unwound from him, taking a decent size step away while the figure landed in front of them.

“Richard,” Damian said, relaxing again and sinking back into Duke’s side. “What are you doing here?”

“Well, baby bat,” Dick said, soft and airy, “Orphan called me in. Wanted me in for back up in case the robbery went south. Which it seems it didn’t, from what I could see. So I decided I’d go out, see if I could find my favourite partner to patrol with.”

Duke placed a hand over his chest, feigning offence. “Excuse me?”

Dick rolled his eyes. In a few quick strides, he was standing tall in front of Duke, dipping him back and kissing him soft and quick. “You’re my favourite too,” he murmured, pulling back. “But in a whole other meaning.”

Duke snorted and squeezed Dick’s hand. “Hey.”

Dick’s smile fell soft, reaching his eyes even if Duke couldn’t see them. “Hey.” He collected Damian to his other side and leaned down to nuzzle the top of his head. “Hey, baby.”

Rolling his eyes at the pet name, Damian shuffled slightly out of Dick’s grip. “Did they really call you for backup?”

Dick shook his head, laughing low. “No, no, I just caught the end of it when I was coming in.” He stepped back, brandishing his arms out. “Just wanted to tell you both, _in person_ , that my transfer was cleared.” Duke’s heart hit out a couple extra beats too fast. Warmth slid through his skin. “Once I finish up with this open case I have left, I’ll be coming over to Gotham PD in a couple weeks.”

Duke bit his lip. “You tell Bruce about it?”

“Uh… _no._ ” Dick ran a hand through his hair. “I’m not sure how to explain why I’m transferring back yet. Without, you know, bringing up us.”

A rock settled comfortably at the bottom of Duke’s stomach. _Us_. Said so easy when it was just the three of them talking about the three of them. The moment someone else was brought into it, the word became ugly. Beside him, Damian wilted too.

What they had was warm and happy. Bringing in everyone else was bound to ruin it.

“I think-“ Damian jerked, pausing as Bruce’s voice filled the coms.

“Robin, I need you.”

Brows furrowing, Damian stepped away from Duke and Dick, already on his way to whatever location Bruce was uttering. Duke gave a halfhearted wave as Damian grappled off the rooftop.

“Always the best timing, ol’ Bruce, eh?” Dick laughed, shaky. 

Duke snorted. “Yeah.” He fiddled with his hands. “Last week, we were messing around in my dorm and he calls right before the big moment.”

Dick laughed, loud but low, and wrapped his arms around Duke. “What do you think I should say?” he asked. “I mean, what would you even say?”

Duke shrugged. “No clue. Honestly… I can’t imagine any scenario in which Bruce doesn’t have a meltdown about it.” He sighed. “Besides, I’ve never really explained us to anyone before.”

“You think that’s weird?”

“What?”

Dick’s hands splayed over his stomach. “That we haven’t said anything to anyone.”

Duke shook his head and turned, feeling Dick’s hands tense then relax against his lower back. “I mean, my friends know. Damian’s friends know. You said you think Kor’I and Wally know. So we’ve made it clear to people, just haven’t said it outright to everyone.”

He stepped out of Dick’s hold. “It’s better that way, isn’t it? As long as they don’t know, they can’t argue with us about it and can’t tell Bruce and he can’t be all weird about it.”

Dick licked his lips. “Maybe you two could just… tell him. About the two of you and I’ll make up some excuse about needing a place to stay and coming back for… I dunno, nostalgia. Or needing a change of pace, or something.”

Duke narrowed his eyes. “Dick, we’ve been through this. It’s all of us. Or none of us. You’re part of this too.”

“Yeah, but I’m the part that he’s going to hate the most.”

He wasn’t wrong about that. Duke could remember, very clearly, the way Bruce’s eyes had gone dark and dangerous when Dick and Tim, drunk as could be, wound up making out for less than a minute inside the kitchen. Then Dick pulled away, threw up into the sink and loudly declared himself the king of the kitchen and passed out and Bruce relaxed, still tense, still bothered but settled.

In a way, it’d been kind of aggravating to see. On the other hand, it was the clearest way to deflect any suspicions anyone may have had about the three of them and judging from the pet names, Dick had been laying on Tim most of the night, he probably thought Tim was Damian.

Besides, there were legal issues that could arise from their respective adoptions. Issues regarding Dick’s reputation as a good person and a _cop_ , issues regarding _Bruce’s_ reputation, already seedy from people who didn’t assume they were Batman and co and speculated that Bruce was beating them. Already seedy from people who did assume they were Batman and co and didn’t approve of Bruce letting them out into the dangerous underground. Duke was planning on going into social work after graduation. Would anyone even hire him if they saw his relationship with Dick and figured he was sketchy and shouldn’t be around children?

There were a lot of factors to take into account. Bruce, the rest of the family, the entirety of Gotham. Society, in general.

It’s why they kept everything on the downlow as it was. But with Dick moving back to Gotham for _them_ , Damian already shopping around for apartments, Duke on the verge of graduation, they needed to come out with it. Sooner rather than later.

Before anything could blow up in their faces.

Sure, they could’ve come out as just Duke and Damian, pretend Dick wasn’t even a factor but neither of them wanted to. They loved him like crazy. Being public with each other would’ve been worth it but not if they had to keep fighting off the urge to kiss him too, to hold his hands, to call him sweet things where people could hear and see that swell of red pattern up his neck.

“Let’s just…. Deal with it. When we have to,” Duke said, kissing Dick once more before pulling down his helmet and walking off. “Now. You gonna patrol with me, or what?”

Dick laughed and gestured out. “Lead the way, Signal.”

Duke grinned and jumped off to the next roof over, feeling the light bloom warm under his boots as he glided, Dick chasing him closely.

* * *

“I need help.”

Dick paused, eyeing Bruce over. Not completely sure what he’d heard was… what he’d heard. “You… need help?”

“With Damian,” Bruce admitted stiffly, refusing to look or even acknowledge Dick’s presence.

Dick set down the repaired copy of his suit and leaned over into Bruce’s space. “What’s up, B?”

“We don’t talk,” Bruce started. “So I don’t know the things I should know.”

Dick’s brows furrowed. “Bruce, I mean, you don’t really talk much to anyone. I mean, we talk but that’s mostly me throwing out things and you grunting vaguely.”

“I do not _grunt_.” Bruce spread his hands over the computer’s keyboard. “Last week, Titus spilled coffee on my computer. While I had it sent in for repairs, I borrowed Damian’s. I saw that he was looking for apartments.”

Dick’s heart took a running start and plunged deep into his stomach. Holding back the strangled feeling in his throat, he managed out, “Oh?”

Bruce shifted, uncomfortable. “I wasn’t even aware he wanted to move out. He’s still in university. Surely, he’d rather start off in one of the dorms.”

“Well, you know Damian,” Dick said airily. “He probably doesn’t want to be around a bunch of college kids. He thinks everyone there is beneath him.”

Bruce scowled. “I wasn’t even aware he was looking at university. He has nearly enough degrees from his time in the League. After all these years, I assumed we were making progress but he still doesn’t tell me things. I didn’t know about Gotham U, he refused to even tell me what he was studying. I had to get Duke to tell me.”

At Duke’s name, Dick’s heart managed a breath of life. “Well, Damian’s just a private person. Like _you_.”

“But even I was open about things like this, Dick,” Bruce shot back, growing somewhere between angry and irritated. “I didn’t even know he started testosterone until I heard him complaining about the shots with Jon.” Bruce’s shoulders dropped. “I assumed he wanted to join Wayne Enterprises like Tim had – that seemed to be his plan from the beginning, but now… I’m unsure.”

“Maybe he’s afraid of disappointing you,” Dick offered.

Bruce shook his head, bringing up a case file. “I’m his father. He should trust me to be understanding about these things. I shouldn’t have to discover half his life through gossip magazines and Vicki Vale.”

Dick snorted. “Bruce, like I said, Damian’s just private. And to be honest, you two don’t nearly have as easy as a rapport as he does with the rest of us. Even Tim is easier to talk to for him and they spend most of their time trying to strangle one another.” Dick placed a hand on Bruce’s arm. “He trusts you. He just has different things he talks about with different people. Batman stuff-“ Dick gestured around the Cave. “That’s you.”

Bruce’s eyes softened a little bit. It was true. Damian may have had different people he chose to talk about certain topics to, but when it came to Robin and missions and different cases, the fact that he could be more open about it with Bruce was definitely a show in growth. Before he hid away all his doings, even in cases where he didn’t go too far, where he followed the letter of Bruce’s law. Dick was never sure why. Could’ve been out of fear Bruce would disapprove either way or out of personal anger that he couldn’t do as he wished with a villain.

But Damian had grown. He was proud of how he was doing as Robin. Bruce even granted him use of a non-lethal weapon of his choice, already having the sword Damian preferred from the League ready to go if he so wanted.

That was something.

But for Bruce, he could understand why it wasn’t enough.

“It’s still disappointing,” Bruce admitted. “I want to know these things. I want to be proud of him. I want to share moments of significance in his life, outside of Batman and Robin.”

Moments of significance. Like moving out into an apartment with his boyfriends of three years. Dick bit his lip. Was it time? Would Bruce be understanding if Dick just broached the topic? Or would he glare at him, angry and betrayed, and force him out?

Bruce shifted and the instant vanished, leaving Dick hollowed out but sure. It wasn’t time. It would likely never be time but he knew. Don’t do it in the Cave. And definitely don’t do it standing mere inches from Bruce’s meaty fists.

“Just talk to him,” Dick offered, collecting his suit. “He might be more willing to open up if you tell him you’d like that.”

Bruce let out a low grunt of agreement, mind already filing the conversation away. Dick couldn’t tell if he’d do it. Bruce barely talked to _him_ and they’d been friends for near twenty years. But at least he had the advice, if he needed it.

* * *

It was two thirty-eight. An early night to end patrol but Stephanie had taken Bruce’s face into her hands and told him point blank that he had a meeting early tomorrow and Tim was giving her as much range to kick Bruce’s ass to make sure he was there on time. Not that Bruce had ever been late to a meeting before. Foggy and a little clouded but never late, no.

So as it was, kicked off patrol by his former Robins, he paced a hole in the flooring of the Cave. Despite an attempt to get Damian to join him, in the hopes that they may be able to discuss things, Damian had chosen to stay home and study. He didn’t deign to say what for and Bruce didn’t think to ask until Damian was in his room, door firmly pulled shut.

It was easier with the others. Even Jason, before he died, was always good for a quick chat about things, his life, his studies, the hobbies he enjoyed. Damian was still a closed book and try as he might, Bruce barely had any luck getting past the first page. The book slammed sharp on his fingers if he tried and if he used force, the book would _bite_.

There was more to it than that, as well. Damian didn’t have to study for anything. Talia had brought him up to know more than he should’ve by the time she left him with Bruce. Damian had bragged about that the whole time Bruce had him enrolled in public and private education, to the point where Bruce finally gave up and let Alfred home-school him again when Damian was sixteen. After enough meetings with teachers calling Bruce in about Damian being dismissive and rude in class, principals pulling Bruce out of work to inform him about fights Damian had been dragged into after insulting the wrong person, it was clear.

Damian was not fit to be around other kids. He knew that, Bruce knew that, Alfred knew that and thanks to all Bruce’s attempts, the Gotham school system was well-informed about it too.

Which made him going to Gotham U, all the more surprising. But Damian had his beliefs on the rites of passage. Tim had gone, briefly. Stephanie had gone. Cassandra had taken a few courses here and there, usually in the arts. Duke was currently on the path. Maybe he saw it as a necessity to society.

Or maybe he knew, it’d be weird that he had a ten year old PhD in astrophysics when he was only nineteen and that people would be more inclined to believe a recent one than one he garnered while under the League.

Who knew?

“Master Bruce,” Alfred called out, clearing through the trainwreck of Bruce’s thoughts. “Are you planning on wearing into the floors all night or will you be taking Miss Stephanie’s advice and retire early?”

Bruce let out a soft laugh, stilling in his motions. “Sorry, Alfred. I’ll be up in a few.”

Alfred regarded him carefully. “If I may be candid, sir?”

“Yes?”

“Perhaps you would be less inclined to worry about Master Damian if you simply discussed your own concerns with him tonight,” Alfred said, plain as could be. “In other words, get a move on, sir.”

Bruce snorted, sitting back to peel off his boots. “Advice duly noted.”

“Good,” Alfred sniffed. “I do tire of leveling off this tile over and over again.”

Bruce watched Alfred walk off to the computer, monitoring the figures on patrol, before he finally stripped down out of his suit and threw on a comfortable pair of worn sweats. He bid Alfred a good night, received a low comment of the same and walked out of the dimly lit sub basement. 

On his way to Damian’s room, he considered a multitude of ways to broach the topic but settled on just being plain about it. Clark did say being subtle was never Bruce’s strong suit and Damain would merely squint up at him, confused if Bruce wasn’t clear or obvious from the getgo.

He stilled outside Damian’s bedroom door, ready to knock when he noticed the door was cracked open. It was uncharacteristic of Damian to sleep without locking it, so he felt readier. In any case, he’d merely be pulling Damian away from his studies, which he grew bored of, and not his sleep, which they all coveted. This would better help the conversation along.

A breathy noise broke his concentration and he froze, fist poised to knock. Another groan, louder, slid through the cracked door. Bruce’s instincts broke out in concern but before he could realize that the noise wasn’t a groan of pain, the door was shoved open.

His brain shut down at the sight before him.

Dick pressed up against Damian’s headboard, Damian sank low between his legs. Dick’s mouth was stretched around one of Damian’s breasts, eyes fluttering while he sucked. Behind Damian, Duke was kneeling, kissing along the expanse of Damian’s throat, exposed as he held his head back, body shaking as the other two held him close and touched him more intimately than Bruce had ever seen Damian allow anyone.

In the few seconds it took for them to notice him, he fired off a series of explanations, each one more ludicrous than the next. Doppelgangers, drugs, a gas leak, they were drunk, he was hallucinating.

Then Damian’s eyes cut to his and his voice _squeaked_ out a panicked, “Father-“ and Bruce was reaching back over, yanking the door shut so hard, the slam echoed throughout the hall and the pictures on the walls shook violently.

* * *

For a moment, all was silent and frozen, like Mr. Freeze had just plunged them into another ice age. 

Then Damian was careening back so fast, his elbow knocked up and hit Duke in the face.

“Shit, shit shit, shit, shit!” He pulled off of Dick clumsy and uncomfortable, thighs still shaking and wet from where Dick and Duke had taken turns eating him out nice and slow.

It was in that haze that Dick straightened up and grabbed him, fingers sinking back where his cock bad just been. Damian glared at him.

“Grayson, now is not the time-”

“Shh, babe, just lemme get you off and then I'll go talk to Bruce, okay?” Dick murmured.

It probably wasn't the sanest decision but he had always been caring and taking care of Damian had been a top priority for him. Making sure he was okay. Right now, he was still wet and needy, even where Dick's erection was wilting away and Duke was quickly coming off his high too. Leaving him to shut down in this state, it wouldn't be good.

Leaving him like this while they all talked to Bruce wouldn't be any better either.

So he curled his fingers in the way Damian like best and kissed along his neck. Damian hiccuped. One hand clawed at Dick's shoulder while the other was still held tight in Duke's hand, the other whispering words of encouragement to get him to let go.

It took a few minutes but Damian keened muffled and quiet into his own bitten lips and went slack in Duke's arms.

Dick pulled out and kissed him. “Okay, I'm gonna- I'm gonna-”

“Shower first,” Duke said. “I got the baby.”

“Hey,” Damian grumbled weakly.

“Sorry,” Duke teased, though his tone was still full of nerves. “I got the brat.”

Damian swatted him as Dick ducked into the bathroom. The steady stream of hot water did nothing to unknot the tension building into his shoulders and lower back. God, why? Really. Why? Was this revenge for walking in on Bruce and Selina when he was thirteen?

Was that it?

A long standing plan the universe had for him all centered around an incident that had occurred almost a decade and a half ago?

And Bruce. Shit.

He hadn't seen much when Bruce walked in, more preoccupied with sinking even deeper into Damian and getting him to make that noise he always insisted he didn't make. But the moment Damian has said, “Father” his eyes focused on the door, Dick had turned.

Bruce's eyes had been clouded by confusion and horror. A look Dick rarely had ever seen on him. The last time... Well, the last time he could remember that look was the first time Damian had tried to kill Tim. Tim had still been Robin and Damian was merely Talia's kid that she'd dumped there for the time being.

All other times Dick imagined Bruce had that look on, he'd been cowled. So there was no way to be sure.

Dick barely had any idea what to expect as he hurried down the hallway minutes later, searching for Bruce. Would he be angry, like they expected? Or more uncomfortable with having seen what he saw to focus on that part?

He stilled in the entrance hall. Bruce was staring up at the family portrait Alfred had wrangled them all into. This one contained just the official living family. The other one with Jason, Steph, Babs and Harper was hung in one of the more private spaces. Rooms people outside the family never ventured into. It varied in its placement depending on where whoever moved it wanted it to be showcased. Sometimes it hung down in the cave.

But this one never moved.

It wasn't the first time Dick had found Bruce looking at either.

He took a slow steadying breath, calming the nerves in his stomach. “Bruce-”

“He's a child,” Bruce said without waiting. He turned from the portrait, Damian's green eyes staring down at them both. “They both are.”

Dick rolled his eyes. “They're adults, Bruce. Have been for a while now.”

Bruce's eyes darkened. They both knew that wasn't his point. His point was that Dick had known them, trained them both before either of them had reached or neared adulthood. His point was that they were too young.

His point was that no matter what the law said, their adulthood was still in its infancy.

“Look, I didn't take advantage of them or anything like that, alright? I would never do that to anyone.” He gestured loosely. “This thing - it just happened.”

“How long?”

Dick's skin jumped from the venomous tone in Bruce's words. “What?”

“How long has this _thing_ been going on?”

“Not- not long,” Dick lied. 

“How long, Dick?” Bruce hissed.

Dick squared up, ready for any attack that might come his way. In the shift, Bruce's eyes went black, his hands balling up. He knew what Dick was gearing up to say.

He was already pissed.

“Three years,” Dick said, his meaning clear.

When Duke was just nineteen and mourning Claire's death. When Damian was just sixteen, no more an adult than any other person his age, no matter the joked about age of his mind. When Dick was twenty-eight and far too old for either one of them.

When he was experienced and they weren't.

“Three years,” Bruce whispered. “Damian was a child, Dick. How could you possibly have been so foolish as to think about him like that? You _raised_ him!”

“Yeah, for like a year, seven years ago, Bruce!” Dick shot back. Unbridled anger was surging through his chest. “I was all he had! You really gonna throw that back on me? I'm still healthier for him than you ever were! For both of them!”

“It's vile.” Bruce approached him like he was prey and Dick stood his ground, mirroring him and already noting every one of Bruce's weaknesses that he'd discovered over the years. “They have admired you, looked up to you! How could possibly think to have sex with people in such a position!”

“I dunno, Bruce. Probably in the same way anyone thinks to have sex with the people they're dating!” 

“This is not a relationship, Dick!” he snapped. “This is you having another crisis, seeking anything in desperation to not grow up! It's _disgusting_.”

A tremor shot through Dick's heart. He was speaking before the words even processed in his head.

“Are you really so _fucking_ miserable that every time someone else is _happy_ , you have to ruin it because you can't stand other people maybe having other fucking motivations than sobbing about _people who died over thirty fucking years ago_?”

Bruce stiffened. His knuckles turned paper white as he bared himself ramrod straight and stared Dick down. “Get out.”

Dick glowered at him.

Bruce's nostrils flared. “GET OUT!”

It burned in Dick's core to do something. To throw a punch. To drag Bruce down to his level. To force him to make Dick leave. People passed him by and always thought of him as happy-go-lucky and sweet. But there was a reason he'd fell into the role of Robin so easily.

He was just as full of rage as anyone could be.

But a soft shift out of the corner of his eye stopped him. Cass was passing by. Her eyes were curious and as she rounded the corner into the entrance hall, Dick exhaled shakily.

Right.

He had to remain calm. Level-headed.

Grounding himself in the beat of his heart, he grabbed the doorknob and yanked the door open. "I'm not breaking up with them," he snapped as he moved towards the exit, eyes firm on Bruce's, and voice as level as he could make it with all the fury burning in him. "And there's nothing you can do to stop me from dating them, Bruce."

Before Bruce could retort or strangle him, Dick yanked the door shut behind him. The resulting slam as he jogged to his car filled him with unbridled relief.

As he stepped into the front seat, he could see Damian's curtain pulled back, two shadowed figures peering down. He turned the car on and watched them for a moment. Then slowly backed out of the driveway and disappeared down the road back to Bludhaven. Somewhere a punching bag was calling his name.

* * *

Damian ran his fingers through his hair. Duke's dorm room was on the bigger side of Gotham U dormitories but still fairly small. After a spectacularly loud fight between him and Father, Damian had grit his teeth and, once Father had left to work, finished packing up his room. He'd been doing it slowly the last few weeks, phasing out various boxes of books and clothes between Duke's dorm and Dick's apartment. Since Dick lived so far away however, that meant, for the time being, Duke's bedroom was piled with more boxes than either of them could see around.

Lucky he'd won the draw this year and gotten a single.

Naturally this also meant Damian was stuck living out of Duke's tiny dorm as well, which would be fine. So long as his RA never found out and they moved the boxes somewhere else. Which would be much _easier_ to do if Jon would just stop being a coward and defy his mother's orders already.

Damian had done it. It wasn't difficult.

"Dames, your mom was also kinda evil," Jon protested. "She just gave me back my phone privileges. I don't wanna lose them so soon. I just got my farm up and running again."

Snorting at the conversation, Duke moved another box into his closet to make room on his desk. Damian leaned against his chair. Without meaning to, he found himself entangling his free hand with Duke's.

"Jon, surely there are better uses of your time than that useless farm app," Damian grumbled.

"It's fun!" At Damian's unimpressed laugh, he sighed. "Look, I'll help you out when I can. I'm pretty sure she's gonna let me go out again in a couple weeks."

"I won't need you in a couple weeks," Damian said, tensing as Duke tugged him. Duke tugged him once more. Understanding, Damian dropped into his lap.

Jon groaned. "Damiaaaaan…"

A beep sounded over the phone. Damian jerked at the sudden noise then shifted unhappily. It was probably Father, gearing up to berate him for vanishing. "I'm getting another call, Jon. I'll call you back-"

"Shit, is it your dad?"

" _-later_ ," Damian finished with a low grunt.

"You don't think he's gonna tell my dad, do you?" Jon mumbled worriedly. "Because then he's gonna talk to me about it because I-" His voice faltered, embarrassed. "Well, you know."

"Yes, I am aware of your immensely loud crush, Jon."

"It's not loud!"

"Be that as it may, I see no reason why my father would tell yours so you have very little to worry about him questioning you on whether or not you've joined in on our orgies." Jon choked at the word and Damian grinned vindictively. "I'll call you back."

He pressed into the next call before Jon could say a word. "Damian Wayne, speaking. Why are you calling?"

"Baby, you have to be nicer when you answer the phone," Dick teased.

"And you should answer my question," Damian snapped without heat. He leaned into Duke's chest, resting the phone on the desk, instead of hovering it in front of his mouth any longer. "What's wrong, Richard? You know this is Duke's prime study hour."

"Oh, shit, I didn't know you were still with him-"

"It's fine, Dickie," Duke said. His pen rolled between his fingertips. "I needed a break, what's up?"

"My transfer is suddenly back on hold."

As though someone had plunged ice water into his veins, Damian's body ran cold. Beneath him, Duke had gone still, brows furrowed. "What?" they chorused, one confused, the other angry.

"Well, it took me about two hours to get someone on the damn phone but-" Dick sighed. "-basically some new information has cropped up and they need more time to review my file. You know. Bullshit reasons."

"Bullshit _Bruce_ reasons," Duke mused, tapping his pen to his upper lip.

"That is definitely likely," Dick suggested, voice breezy but strained.

Damian rolled his eyes. "Likely? It's almost definitely what happened. Father must've found out about your transfer somehow." He clicked his tongue. "Gordon probably ran his fool mouth off. Imbecile."

Dick snorted. "Ah, ah, ah, baby bat, don't be throwing names around."

"Don't stress, Dick." Duke slung his arm around Damian's waist and squeezed his ass. "I'll make sure to punish him for it."

Fighting the rising heat to his cheeks, Damian rolled his eyes and stepped out Duke's grip, allowing the other to interlock their fingers and pull him back close.

Dick laughed. "Yeah? Tell me how that goes." He sighed, something creaking over the phone. "I'll follow up with Jim tomorrow, if I have to. Explain the situation or something, I dunno. I'll get it verified again though. Don't worry about it. Just might take more time than we thought."

Duke squeezed Damian's hand. "What if we just moved in with you? In Bludhaven?"

Damian could practically see the spark snap in Dick's eyes before the man even uttered a word. He didn't want that.

He'd already said it before.

"Gotham is your home. It's all of our homes," Dick fired off. "Not to mention that you're graduating and Dami's only got one year left. Transferring now would be stupid and the commute to Gotham U would be too much to do everyday."

"It's only every week day," Duke said. "And I still have my dorm here for the semester and Damian can sign up for next year's."

"Yeah, but if Damian stays there longer than a week, you could get kicked out," Dick grumbled. "No, it's fine, babe. I'm going to get the transfer back on track, we'll move into a fancy apartment together, you'll be a kick-ass social worker, I'm gonna keep being a kick-ass detective and Damian will be our sugar baby. Just as planned."

Damian snorted. "Your sugar baby?"

"Yeah, we're gonna spoil you until you yell at us," Duke said, so easy, like they'd discussed it a thousand times. "And then probably still keep doing it."

"Soooo much chocolate," Dick agreed.

"Sounds more like a treat for yourselves." Damian leaned into Duke's side, the scruff of his hair rubbing the underside of his chin.

"Maybe so," Duke hummed, tilting his head up to kiss the corner of Damian's mouth. 

Exhaling deeply, Damian shifted until he'd all but fallen into Duke's lap, catching his mouth in a deeper press. Duke groaned. As though trying to box him in, he pushed Damian back into the desk. Damian released a quiet whine. Darkly, Duke chuckled against his mouth, licking deeply into Damian's mouth, his dick pushing hard up against Damian's crotch.

"Fuck, are you kissing right now?" Dick interrupted. The phone buzzed. "Accept my fucking video call request right now."

Duke pulled back, laughing against Damian's shoulder. Dick whined, sounding more like Titus than a thirty-year old man. 

Fixing his shirt and sliding off the desk, Damian said, "Duke has to study."

Dick groaned. "Ugh, this is why people don't date students."

Duke choked on a laugh. "Really?"

After declining Dick's video call request, Damian relaxed into the front of the desk, watching Duke's eyes peer up at him, bright and happy. He could very easily imagine Dick's the same way. The stark blue of them were all but burned into his retinas with the way he'd studied them over the years and bore into them every aspect of Dick's ever changing moods.

"Don't forget, we have a meeting with the landlord for the building on Dead Man's Lane at two."

Weary, Duke closed his eyes. "I'm beginning to think whoever named these streets was morbidly depressed."

"That or they just knew the type of place Gotham was going to be," Dick offered. "I'll be there. You want us to take pictures?"

"No," Damian said. He traced his finger over the curve of Duke's jaw. "I trust your judgement."

"Aw, you really do love us," Dick teased.

Damian flushed a burning red and immediately turned away from Duke, as though turning his back on him would somehow stop the utter glee shooting through his face. "Shut up, Richard!"

"Oh, good, he's blushing now, right?" Dick called through, while Damian, in vain, struggled to hang up the phone. "Give him a kiss from me!"

One hand on his wrist, the other firmly squeezing Damian's jaw, Duke pulled Damian's head back around to give him a soft kiss on the top of Damian's head, right where Dick liked to plant one when he was sleepy and had managed to corral one of them into a cuddle.

Damian went stiff and embarrassed but Duke just pulled back, kissed the tip of his nose and said, "See you tomorrow, amor. Love you."

"Love you too," Dick chirped.

Duke's eyes bore into Damian's and Dick's silence crackled expectantly. Trying not blush any deeper, Damian wrestled himself out of Duke's hold and held the phone closer to his mouth, staring at the blank wall.

It didn't matter how many times he did this. It was always embarrassing to say out loud.

"Love you," he mumbled quickly, eyes squeezing shut. Without another word, he hung up the phone, threw it onto Duke's bed before sinking into a pillow and pretending that ridiculous phrase didn't fill him with a pathetic amount of happiness to hear from the two of them.

Duke rubbed the back of his neck before kissing the same spot and murmuring, "Quiz me?"

Damian pulled back from his shame pillow and exhaled sharply. "Of course."

* * *

"And with the rooftop access," the landlord, Sarah, continued, climbing back down to the balcony, "each top floor tenant has their own section to themselves for whatever use you might desire, whether it be gardening or bird-watching." She dusted off her hands and picked up her clipboard. "As you saw, each area is sectioned off by a little ledge."

Dick leaned into Duke's side, winding their fingers together. Rooftop access was so much better than his apartment in Bludhaven, where his options were get changed inside and then throw himself out the window really fast or stash a change of clothes somewhere no one would look and hope no one would look.

Climbing up to the roof through the balcony might make them a bit more obvious but they could plant some tomatoes and stash a change of clothes inside the gardening equipment. And there was always the option of jumping off the balcony which seemed much better than throwing one's self out a window and hoping they didn't crash-land before the grapple hooked onto something. Or that no one noticed notorious vigilante Nightwing jumping out of Dick Grayson's apartment every night.

He hadn't had a need to come up with an excuse for that yet but he knew his brain would probably split between "Nightwing robbed my fridge" and "He's my lover on the down-low".

"So," Sarah clipped. "What do you think?"

"Well, it certainly hits all of our needs," Duke said. "Two bedrooms, pet friendly, affordable rent."

"Bonus rooftop access," Dick added. "Dami's gonna love that."

"Dami." Sarah tapped her clipboard, eyeing down at it studiously. "Is that short for Damian?"

"Yep," Duke said, running his finger over the wall sconce.

Sarah tapped her clipboard again, a rapid-fire staccato. "And he is… your third, I assume?"

Nervous, Dick jerked but Duke just "mmhmm"ed in quiet agreement. His head tilting back ever so slightly to catch her eyes, Duke's smile was light and comforting. "We're not ready to be publicized just yet though. So discretion. If you don't mind."

Sarah waved off their concerns. Dick's stomach slowly unknotted itself. "Vicki is a very close friend of mine, so I can assure you, I've gotten very good at keeping things quiet when they need to be." Her clipboard slipped down to her front as she smiled at them. "You have my silence."

Dick relaxed. The phrase "Vicki is a close friend" rarely ever brought up anything good but Sarah seemed more preoccupied with getting them to want the place than actually telling them off for their relationship or seeking the next big buzz. "Thank you."

"Oh, it's no problem," she assured them. "Now, should I get the forms for you or do you need to deliberate a little longer?"

Dick glanced at Duke, giving him a swift nod of the head. Dick had lived in a variety of well-worn places. At the end of the day, he could find anywhere to call home. Duke and Damian? This was all their choice.

Duke reached over and clasped his head right, smile beaming. "I like it. We'll take it."

Sarah exhaled. "Excellent! Well, I will head right downstairs and make you up some copies. Feel free to look around a little longer." She waved her clipboard around, a small giggle falling from her lips. "This will take a little while."

They nodded and she slipped out the door, her shoes barely making a clack over the tiled flooring.

Duke leaned into Dick's chest, back to stomach, and Dick's head nuzzling the back of his. Dick hummed as they rocked together. He glanced up to the island in the kitchen. It was noticeable through the open window slot in the wall. That was the kind of thing Dick loved.

The manor had about a thousand doors and no way to see inside or out. Alfred and Bruce always pushed them closed even if Dick had wanted them to be propped open. It was just another point of his first upbringing he'd never really gotten over. In the circus everything was open. Sure, people had their doors, their privacy, their own spots to sleep and eat and dream, but everything was so tightly knit together that people rarely kept anything or anyone out.

A closed door usually meant contagion.

At the manor, all Dick had ever run into were closed doors. He spent the first few weeks believing Bruce had taken him in on a whim before he realized that much like swinging from the second floor to the first by the chandelier, some things were just different and he wasn't normal for realizing it.

Even in his first apartment, a cheap and cramped studio he rented throughout the police academy and his entire stint as a beat cop, he only ever used the divider when someone else wanted him to. Otherwise, he kept it pushed back against the wall. It was comforting to turn over and see another body, or see anything really, instead of a blank slate intended for cutting him off from everything else.

Pointing at the island, he murmured, "I'm gonna blow you on that."

Duke choked and tilted his head back on Dick's shoulder. "You know, there are some days where I think your libido fits your age and then sometimes I realize that you're going to be like this when you're eighty and I'm tired."

Dick kissed his throat. "Hey, I'm just prepping you for when Damian's second puberty finally spikes _his_ libido."

Duke groaned. "You're both planning on murdering me with sex, aren't you?"

"It was discussed a couple times," Dick teased.

Stepping out of his grip, Duke spun around and caught Dick's hands with his, pulling them up and then back down until Dick was tugged in close. "He's gonna be so much hotter, isn't he?"

Dick laughed. "Puberty did not hurt Damian in the slightest the first time around, so yeah. He's gonna kill us with his pretty face _even more_." Duke grimaced, eyes slatting down. The fluttery feelings in his chest danced away. Dick frowned. "What's up?"

"I don't know," Duke admitted. He cut his eyes shyly back up to Dick. "I guess… Well, I'm not even graduated yet and I already have an apartment. It's just weird."

Dick shrugged. "Well, Damian's been wanting to move out for the last two years and it's not every day you get offered a position in a different jurisdiction." He squeezed Duke's hand. "But, I mean, you still have your dorm until the end of the semester so it's not like you have to-"

Without hesitation, Duke slapped a hand over his mouth. "That's not what I meant." Dropping his hand, he pressed his forehead to Dick's nose. "I just meant in the expected timeline of things, I'm definitely shifting some stuff around." He pulled back to catch Dick's eye. "But I'm happy."

"Me too," Dick murmured.

"Good." Duke grinned bright and pointed at a spot just below the wall sconce he'd been fiddling with earlier. "And after you blow me, I'm fucking you there."

* * *

Dick unlocked the door to his apartment, throwing down his bag and pushing his hair out of his face. The universe, apparently hating him, had decided to piss rain the moment he left the station. And given that he had driven to Gotham in the middle of the day, he had had no choice but to park three blocks away when he came back.

Which meant that he was soaked when he got in the car and, because there was no garage parking in his building, he was soaked again the moment he got out.

Luckily, his apartment was warm. A familiar smell wafted in from the kitchen. Tension riddled down his back. Instinctively, he went to his taser but as soon as a warmth-inducing mop of black hair cut into his vision, he relaxed like melting butter.

"Dami, I wasn't expecting you."

Damian's green eyes glittered at him. "That's because I didn't call you, Richard." He turned back to what he was doing in the kitchen. "You're late."

"I'm packing in some overtime," Dick said, shrugging off his jacket into a shopping pile on the floor. He shuffled over and squeezed Damian tight from behind, pestering the top of his head with kisses.

"You're soaking me," Damian clipped. He stirred the mess of vegetables in the bowl, scraping the sides. "As soon as I saw the rain, I laid out some clothes for you. They're on your bed."

"Oh, you're the best." Dick kissed the top of his head one more time before shuffling to his bedroom, peeling off his clothes as he did.

Even with all the motion though, he didn't miss Damian's quiet but firm, "Of course, I am."

As though just having gone through a quick spin through the dryer, the clothes Damian picked out were loose and warm. After drying off quickly, Dick snuggled into them and a new pair of underwear. Snagging the wet mess he'd left behind, he balled it all up and threw it into the hamper by the bathroom before coming back to bury himself against Damian's back.

Living in a completely different city, even one as close as Bludhaven was to Gotham, meant that visits were infrequent and stuttered. If Dick ever popped by, it was usually right after work and two hours of pedal-to-the-medal'ing it. It made him covet these domestic kinds of moments, whether that be having dinner in-house together or kicking ass in alleyways.

"Whatcha making?"

"Butter chicken," Damian said. "But vegetarian."

"Oh, that's great." Dick pulled up the lid to the bread box and pulled out a half empty bag of naan bread. "I bought some naan last week."

Damian's lip quirked. He let Dick smother his cheek in another barrage of kisses before kicking him away. Laughing, Dick stepped off to the side and stole an unchopped mushroom from the package.

"So, you just stop by to stop by or something up? You finally get caught in Duke's dorm?"

"No." Damian's brows furrowed and he scowled. "I received some bad news following my class this afternoon."

Dick straightened up. His voice lined sharp. "What happened?"

"Father cut me off." Damian threw a broccoli stem into his mouth. "I believe he's trying to scare me away from you."

Dick swallowed thickly. In the back of his mind, he remembered himself throwing the front door open, his bags in his hands and his throat wrecked raw from screaming. He remembered refusing Bruce's help, his money, his status before running off to Bludhaven.

Most of all, he remembered Bruce not listening to a word and still slyly picking up where Dick had struggled.

It's taken three months of bitter phone calls and threatening to vanish on Bruce forever to get him to stop. Bruce may have been able to track down ghosts but all that really meant was that Dick knew exactly what to do and how to evade him.

So he couldn't stop the rage blooming in his chest that Bruce would even try anything that like. As though Dick wasn't capable of taking care of anyone but himself. Sure, he wasn't a billionaire with his own line of businesses but he wasn't _stupid_.

Did Bruce really think, despite the likelihood feeling so low in Dick's mind, that Dick wouldn't have _planned_ for something like this? That with all Bruce's strict standards on being overly prepared for _anything_ Dick wouldn't have soaked some of that up to be used in his formative years?

Did he honestly think Dick was useless? Or did he just think that Damian, Damian who spent two weeks fighting from one end of a jungle to the next with nothing but the clothes his grandfather dumped him there in when he was barely seven years old, wasn't savvy enough to survive without Bruce's so called impeccable help?

"Okay," Dick began slowly, taking in a deep breath to call himself. "Well, your whole year is paid off, so we don't need to worry about that and I have enough savings to carry through for like nine months _if_ I was unemployed, which I'm not so there's that, and Duke's scholarship-"

"Richard," Damian cut in, turning to face him head on.

Dick pushed his hair back. "I'm just saying, I prepared for this. I've lived long enough without Bruce's money so I can-"

" _Richard_ ," Damian repeated. "Why do you all seem to forget that assassins get _paid_?"

Dick paused. Then, "What?"

"For every mission, I completed under my mother's tutelage, I was paid a fine sum," Damian explained, turning back to the sauce he was whipping together. "And even for things I'd done for her without realizing it, such as when my team and I got back that diamond egg that she then stole from us, she's paid me for my services.

"Ever since Father took me in, she's also wanted to prove herself a good mother so she funded an allowance for me monthly. Initially someone else managed the funds but after a loss of about ten million-"

Dick blinked, sure he had misheard. "Ten million?"

"-she made an example of him and then promptly took over. I hadn't checked the account since I left the League." Damian fished his phone out of his pocket. "Well, at least, I hadn't until today."

"And?"

Damian typed in his password one handed before giving Dick the phone. The bank account was still open to the page it's been left on, the total sum of Damian's worth right there an unbelievable.

"Holy shit."

"Although I could check on it, I never had direct access to it until I was eighteen, though the allowance was kept in a different account until I told her I wanted nothing to do with her and she moved it over it appears," Damian said, easy, like everyone just had this amount of money lying around. "I suppose she still manages the investments for me."

Dick's eyes snapped up. "Are you concerned about that?"

"No," Damian admitted. "Mother, as much as she is wrong about how I should be raised, does love me and she does want the best for me. I don't see her trying anything, even if she were ordered to, and I doubt anyone is even aware." He took his phone back and pocketed it away. "I estimate, even without investment funds, we should be fine for the next hundred years, with or without a set of children."

The thought of children sent flutters through Dick's chest but he snapped himself out of the haze quickly. "Really?"

Damian dragged his gaze over. "Do I need to show you the amount again?" He frowned. "You're upset."

Dick shook his head. "No, no, I'm-" He sighed under Damian's penetrative gaze. "I guess I just wanted to take care of you guys."

"We're not children, Richard," Damian said, turning back to the sauce. "This is an equal relationship."

"I know." Dick hummed happily and nuzzled Damian's cheek. Damian relaxed into his hold, but there remained some stuff tension in his upper back. "Something up?"

"You feel required to prove your place," Damian started. Dick frowned but kept quiet as Damian stirred, contemplating his next words. "You… you want to be here, right? With us? I didn't force you into this, did I?"

Dick stepped back, pulling Damian around with him. The open space between them was small but breathable, just how the two had maneuvered difficult moments the last couple years. Damian needed space to move as he spoke. Dick needed to be close, to understand the other person, to see their eyes, to make sure they weren't going to run off on him.

It was strange whenever he thought about fights or disagreements the others had with Damian. The knew the easiest way to piss him off was to get too close and so they would. Get in his face. Invade him. Corner him into a spot he couldn't run. Even Bruce would grab Damian by the wrist as he spoke. Keep him close and uncomfortable.

Dick had stopped once he realized the close quarters sent Damian into a harsher spiral than he'd already been in. He kept his distance. Over the years, they'd gravitated closer. It was nice.

A true testament to Damian's trust.

Which terrified Dick. If he closed his eyes and dwelled on it longer than necessary, he could see angry faces shouting orders and hands coming down on Damian's skin in punishment. Damian refused, even now, to admit the more abusive nature of the League.

Doing so would force his mother under scrutiny as well. And despite what she'd done to him in the past, Damian did love her. And she loved him. It was just that their mutual understanding of love was twisted so ugly from the way the two of them were raised.

Damian had moved away from violence and stalking but Talia...

Talia might have done her best to keep Damian as mentally sound as possible while he learned how to kill people with his sword and thighs but that didn't mean Ra's cared about Damian's mental state. And if he was willing to throw his own children into the ring, why would he care about his grandson getting beat?

"Damian, I have never been in a relationship for this long." He pushed his hair out of his eyes, fisting his tuft of bangs on top of his head and exhaling slowly as Damian's eyes watched him. "Believe me, if I wanted out, I would've left by now. Besides-" He dropped his arm and grinned. "-you couldn't force me to love you because I already did."

Damian exhaled sharply - half frustrated, half flattered. "I just want to be sure."

"Well, here's your affirmation. I love you, I love Duke and I want to hit retirement with both of you." He tucked a stray flop of hair behind Damian's ear and shivered as Damian moved his jawline into Dick's hand, kissing his palm so lightly Dick barely felt it. "I'm just used to taking care of you."

"Well, this is an equal partnership, Richard," Damian hummed. He took Dick's hand in his own. Stepping close, he watched Dick's eyes even deeper. "We all take care of each other."

With that, he raised to his tiptoes and kissed the tip of Dick's nose before dropping back down and effectively kicking him out of his own kitchen to return to the sauce bubbling on the stove. Dick three himself out onto the couch. His chin pressed along the back cushion. He always liked watching Damian cook. Or Damian do anything really. As with crime fighting, everything he did extremely seriously and it was always funny to watch him do something relaxing while making it out to be the biggest deal in the whole world.

"I asked Duke the same," Damian said. 

"And?"

"He said something along the same lines," Damian admitted, voice turned partially embarrassed.

Dick dropped his chin to his hand and grinned. "I know you can be a manipulative little shit sometimes, Dami, but you'd never do something like that."

"How do you know?" Damian bit back without any real heat to it.

"Look, the fact that you're asking in the first place means you've changed." Dick's eyes fluttered shut. "You never would've done that before. You've grown, baby bat."

Damian went still. The moment held between them thick and heated. Then it snapped and Damian went back to stirring without another word.

Emotions were difficult for Damian to understand, much less express. He'd only recently been able to get out the words "I love you" to either of them and even then he rushed the statement, like he was afraid to have them hear it or worried that if he didn't say it fast enough, the words would sharpen in his throat and cut him open. Whenever Dick or Duke, or anyone really, voiced love to him, he grew flustered and upset. Jon was the first person Damian really freaked out about it to.

Dick could remember very clearly the day Jon told Damian he was in love with him because it was the first time Damian had really _panicked_. Jon had come along with Clark to drop off a gift for Bruce's birthday. It was a reluctant birthday party. Cass had forced Bruce to wear a party hat and he was the only one wearing one, which made the pictures they took that much more funny.

Jon had just blurted it out in the middle of the birthday song. For the first time in his life, Dick got to see Superman and Batman suffer from what appeared to be joint heart attacks until everyone realized that Jon was staring at Damian, who'd frozen up as though hit by Mr. Freeze. It was funny because instant relief hit everyone in the room as well as untouched confusion because of all Damian's friends, Jon was the least likely to ever say that. He was _sensible_. 

Damian immediately flipped out, demanded Jon take it back and, when he refused, grabbed Bruce's cake and threw it at him before running away. 

Jon managed to evade the cake but unfortunately that meant it landed on Tim. Jason made sure to take a dozen or so photos for Damian though.

It had been confusing in the moment and funny afterwards, but it'd only been a few weeks later when Damian shrugged off Dick's hand and tersely ignored a compliment about his hair that it really hit Dick.

Sure, he knew Damian struggled with emotions. Hell, all of them did in some way. But it never really sunk it how bad it was. Maybe because Dick was usually pretty good at reading people or because Damian had always been fairly open with him. 

He'd tested it out with a flippant "Love you, little D" after the end of a visit and heard Damian's softly muttered, "Shut up, Grayson" follow suit. Love wasn't given to Damian oh so freely. Talia may have loved him but the way she demonstrated it was vastly different from the normal so it was no surprise that Damian just… _didn't_ understand.

He was used to being complimented for his skills in the League so he accepted compliments or praise for his skills as Robin with quick and easy "Of course" and "Naturally" or snide remarks usually throwing down Tim. But outside of that, he was on his own. He didn't get any appreciation for being himself. He was only really valued as a warrior.

But over the past few years, he'd begun to ease into it. He didn't dismiss the little things anymore.

And it thrilled Dick to his core. He wanted nothing more than to shower them both in love and the thought of Damian slowly beginning to accept that burned so deep it probably was turning him on more than he thought it would.

Damian turned off the stove. The sauce continued to bubble and thicken. He didn't turn around but slowly packed everything up.

"I have grown," he said quietly.

"Yes," Dick said. "You don't hide your emotions as much. It's good."

Damian still didn't look at him but his shoulders dropped and his hand stopped fisting the kitchen counter. "The League held different standards. You helped me change."

"It's still your growth, Damian," Dick said. "Whether I or Duke or Maya or _anyone_ assisted in that, it's still your choice and your change. You're doing great."

Damian released a sharp exhale and muttered, "Shut up, Grayson."

Dick pushed up and jumped over the back of the couch. "What? Too much love?"

Damian smacked him with a wet spoon. " _Off._ "

As Dick ducked the attempt of another swat by soon, he teetered into the back of the couch, leaning into the cushions, and watched as Damian spooned rice into two bowls. The door creaked open. Duke entered, shaking like a drowned cat. He threw his umbrella down and peeled off his raincoat. It was all the way soaked through.

Dick jumped to his feet. "Hey!"

Duke caught his gaze and groaned when Dick pulled him into a tight hug. "And now _you're_ wet "

"Richard!" Damian chastised.

Dick blew him a kiss before stepping back. He took Duke's coat and hung it up. Beside the hook was a towel Dick kept in place for situations just like this. He splayed it out underneath the jacket.

As he cleaned up, Duke slowly shed his pants, drenched from mid-calf down to his shoes. "Came right after my class." He wiggled out of his wet socks and balled them up in one hand. "Thought I'd spend the weekend."

Walking over to the bathroom, he paused and kissed Damian's cheek. Dick caught the clothes and dumped them in the hamper for him. Meanwhile Duke and Damian were murmuring low as Damian continued to spoon rice into bowls and Duke thumbed the back of his neck, soft and soothing.

It used to make Dick jealous how intimate they could be together while Dick teetered on the sidelines, always aware of himself and what he was to them, what he had once been. Now the sight filled him with overwhelming warmth.

It was utterly domestic. Something Dick had missed throughout the last few years.

* * *

Duke yanked down Dick's pants. "I'm gonna fuck you until your family pays my ransom."

Dick squirmed and moaned as Duke prodded around his ass. "Oh, you heinous villain." Duke snorted. "So terrible and I am not turned on by any of this."

Damian jumped out of the bathroom, his hands brandished on his sides. "Stop, fiend!"

Turning out, Duke resisted the urge to groan. Damian was wearing a knockoff of Dick's old costume. It didn't come in his size so they had to get a child's version which meant that it was tight around every aspect of Damian's body. _Including_ his ass.

"Fuck, I love those shorts," he muttered.

"Thomas," Damian huffed.

Duke shook his head and pulled Dick up by the scruff of his gag, which had fallen out of his mouth and was now hanging loose around his neck. He choked. Duke mumbled a quick apology before pulling Dick back into his chest. He pulled out a nerf gun from his waistband and brandished it at Damian.

"Never, Robin! I'm going to take this beautiful man for my own and then-" He waggled his gun. "-I'll take you."

"Save me, Robin," Dick said, in a false tone. "And also turn around a little please."

"Grayson." Damian rolled his eyes and pulled out the fake batarang that Duke had picked up months ago at a Batman trivia night. "You will never get away with this…" he gestured vaguely.

"Uh, Seeex… Machine?"

"That is so bad, sweetie," Dick muttered.

"Every villain is on the nose so it's fine," Duke shot back.

Damian rolled his eyes. "Okay, Sex Machine." He readied his stance. "Release the hostage!"

"I'll release him," Duke said quickly, words moving faster than his mind could really stop to take them in. "I'll release him from his sexual confines."

Dick giggled. Duke pinched his cock. "Ow!"

"No laughing, hostage!" Duke said.

Damian pinched the bridge of his nose. "I would be a much better villain than you."

Duke lowered his nerf gun. "Yeah, but when you play the villain, sometimes it's scary. You get too into it." He gestured vaguely. "And it is hot. But not for tonight."

"Oh man remember when he got you on your knees in like five seconds," Dick asked, tilting his head back on Duke's shoulder to catch his eyes.

Duke moaned at the memory. That had been a delicious time.

Dick, getting voted for to be the hero, had flipped on Signal for the night, Damian was stuck on villain duty and Duke had been the struggling hostage. Damian always nailed villain duty. Always the right amount of terrifying and sexy.

Honestly.

If Damian had been a bad guy when Duke first entered the hero game, they still probably would've ended up in bed together three years later. It was the way he slowly slid his thumb down Duke's cheek. His nail would scrape delicately on the skin. His skin would ghost feather-light. He'd move it all the way down to the juxt of Duke's throat and _press_ ever so gently, the look in his eyes dark and painfully obvious that he could kill Duke so, _so_ easily.

Instead of his old assassin's gear, he wore a crisp all black suit, his hair let out over his eyes rather than slicked back. He'd use his non-lethal sword like a cane. He spoke in a low voice, Gotham accent laid on thick.

Duke was pretty much ready to submit right away.

Dick usually was too.

Luckily Damian was always susceptible to them as well. The first time Duke got stuck on Robin duty, after lacing up black combat boots in place of Damian's usual green, he'd stepped out and Damian turned on Dick and then jumped Duke's bones in the first two seconds.

And they were always horny for Dick.

No man should have that ass. It wasn't fair.

It was just too _firm_.

“Focus!” Damian huffed. he pushed his hair back and re-brandished the batarang. “Release him!”

“Fine!” Duke unceremoniously shoved Dick into the couch. He landed face-first with a little _oof_. His knees smacked into the baseboard. “But once I defeat you, Robin! Both your asses will be mine.”

Damian’s lips twitched and then he chucked his fake batarang. Duke dodged it. As Damian lunged forward, Duke tackled his hips and began trying to position his nerf gun to fire at Damian’s legs and arms. He was _not_ going to fuck a fake corpse but a hero with a fake injury was fair game.

He could just pretend to bandage it up while Damian faked being out of commission.

That is if Damian _would stop kicking him_.

Dick squirmed onto the couch. “Wait, who am I rooting for?”

“Me, Richard!” Damian kicked Duke’s thigh and yanked the nerf gun out of his grip. It landed in the hamper with one expert throw. “Hostages always root for the hero.”

“Right,” Dick said slowly. He squirmed where he sat, his eyes trained more closely on Duke’s ass than Damian’s laid back fighting technique. “Right, right, right, right.”

Duke flipped Damian onto his stomach. “You are the worst hostage ever.”

“I'm an impeccable hostage,” Dick protested. “And to prove it, I'm gonna get my pants off.”

Damian ground back into Duke’s crotch. the friction pushed back on him, flooding the base of his stomach with heat. in the moment, he slipped up. Using the second of easement, Damian squirmed quickly out of the grasp and jumped back to his feet.

“How is taking your pants off supposed to prove that, Richard?”

“Because-” Dick already had his pants around his ankles. An impressive feat for someone with their arms tied behind their backs. He was struggling to kick them the rest of the way off. “-as we all know, I can only watch you two wrestle around for so long before my pants get too tight.”

Duke laughed. “It's been, like, a minute!”

“Have you seen yourselves lately?” With a final kick, Dick’s pants flung into the wall and he slid off the couch and onto the floor. “I may not be as young and full of stamina as I used to be-” Damian snorted. “-but I can still get it up.”

“You’re thirty, not a hundred.”

“Then why does my back always hurt,” he whined.

“Because you think the best way to do your work is by bending over your desk and squinting, instead of getting reading glasses, like a functioning adult, “ Duke said.

Damian rolled his eyes and tackled Duke back down to the ground. He straddled himself over Duke's chest. His ass was on display for Dick, who looked about ready to die right there, and his crotch was in Duke's direct line of sight. There was a glistening and growing dark spot on the green spandex.

Damian leaned back, using one foot to pin Duke's chest in place. "Do you give, villain?'

"I will never-"

The phone rang.

"Who's-"

"It's mine," Damian grumbled, getting up from Duke's chest to go get it. "I told them _not_ to interrupt me tonight."

"I thought your team wasn't doing missions until Jon stopped being grounded," Duke said, rising.

"They're not supposed to be!" Damian vanished into the bathroom, where he'd left his clothes.

"Okay, well-" Duke looked at Dick. "-I'm gonna make him blow me!"

"Yes, that sounds great," Dick said immediately, no hesitation. He worked his way over to Duke. "Get your fucking pants off."

Duke started thumbing at the clasp on his belt. His other hand migrated over to Dick's face, stroking down his cheek and hooking his thumb into Dick's mouth. He pulled back on the skin there, opening Dick up wide and exposing his teeth and tongue. Dick whined. "Maybe I should make you do it with your mouth."

Dick groaned, his eyes fluttering shut.

Duke grinned and slid his hand back to his hair. Fisting a handful of those dark locks, he yanked Dick closer until he was unceremoniously pushed into Duke's crotch.

If he'd ever been asked if he saw this playing out in his future, Dick Grayson, the first Robin, the second Batman, the first and current iteration of Nightwing, splayed on carpet and salivating at the thought of being pulled around by Duke's own hand, growing hard at the thought of sucking Duke's cock, he definitely would've said no but it would've been a scene he played out in his head for months to come.

He never thought he'd ever end up with Damian either and there he was.

Role-playing sexual scenarios in Dick's living room

It felt so natural at this point. In the early stages with just Damian, it had been like that too. Surprising but not unwanted.

Damian was just as he was before they were official. There was no real change to the way they hung out. They just kissed and held hands and pretended not to notice how sweaty the other got when they did. It was probably what let them slide by everyone's notice.

When Dick came in, he came in with far more experience than the two of them had combined. It had been nerve-racking to get naked and fuck him. With Damian, it'd been easier. Just address his bodily boundaries for that day and then sink into it. They were both so clumsy with each other.

But Dick touched them expertly. He didn't need to observe as closely as Duke would, he didn't keep asking if everything was okay. He could get by on sounds alone. Duke rarely ever had to ask him to stop or move or fuck him harder because before the words even touched his tongue, Dick did it.

He'd been embarrassed with his body too. He'd always been on the pudgier side than the rest of the bat-fam, not fat, but just thicker in a way that didn't all account for muscle. Maybe it was easier to find himself attractive with Damian because Damian was trans. They both had bodily troubles.

But Dick was a specimen.

And Duke found himself so aware of how he looked, how he sounded in comparison, how he must've felt, that it had been difficult to really notice how much Dick lived to worship them.

Dick had a temper. He had limits. He had issues. People over categorized him as sweet, relatively harmless or ditzy and they were wrong.

But in moments like these, Duke sometimes found that difficult to remember. Dick would gaze up at him like he was drunk off the sheer existence of Duke. Like Duke's presence was the only reason he lived.

Whether they were sinking low into one another or curled up on the couch, Dick's eyes seemed to bare into him, like he wanted nothing more than to imprint the sight of Duke into his brain.

It made Duke feel stupidly powerful.

And ridiculously adored.

"Come on, _hostage._ I know you can work that mouth well." As he reached around for the fallen toy batarang, Duke tugged on Dick's hair. He groaned, tugging the buckle back with his teeth. Duke positioned the batarang under Dick's throat. "There's a good boy."

"I have to go."

Duke blinked. Dick twisted his head around. Together, they chorused, "What?"

Damian was peeling off his Halloween costume. "Drake needs me. Rinsky escaped from Arkham this morning."

Rinsky?

Duke's stomach flopped over. "Wait, that former League member who was obsessed with you?"

Damian shot him a look and pulled his shirt on. "Yes." He slid back into his slacks. "Drake knows I will be the best way to distract him and needs to me join. Jon is being temporarily lifted off his grounding to assist."

Duke started to stand, move closer. The uneasy feeling in his stomach squirmed harder.

Rinsky had been difficult. Not even Bruce could force him to stay still long enough to catch. It had taken Damian's feigned surrender to get him and even then Damian had been stuck with him for three days while he idolized the object of his obsession. It had been difficult then, and Duke hadn't even been dating him.

Rinsky had never been physically interested in Damian, other than his skills as an assassin, but Damian had also been fourteen.

Now he was nineteen and not as spindly.

"Maybe we should come with?"

Damian sent them _both_ a look. "I'll be fine. The man wishes to groom me back to my former ways, not fuck me into submission. Drake and Jon will do."

"See, I wasn't too concerned about that happening," Dick started, "but now you've mentioned it and I'm worried."

"Richard," Damian began testily. " _Duke_. I will be fine. You both know I am more than capable of taking care of myself." He pointed sternly at both of them. Like they were Titus knocking over a lamp. "Do not follow."

He left quickly after that, tugging his coat back on as he shifted out the front door.

Dick exhaled sharply. "Ahh, it was so much easier when the only person obsessed with him was his mother."

Duke nodded.

It wasn't difficult letting either of them go out for patrols or missions. They were all trained and capable. What was difficult was when he wasn't doing the same and had no choice but to wait. Often until the next morning.

Damian was easier. Dick was always farther away and downplayed injuries more than he should've. Damian did too but at least he was close enough, he couldn't get away with it.

But Damian and his team were moving up along the lines of duty which lead to bigger scrapes and being gone more than normal.

So Duke worried.

He knew he shouldn't. 

But some nights he saw Dick's mouth stretched wide in an uncomfortable grin while Damian screeched out a demonic laughter and couldn't shake the feeling that something was going to go wrong. Some mornings he'd find no time-stamped message, no smiley text or vague picture of a bird on an electrical line and Claire's body would shoot through his head, just empty and drained and lifeless.

She'd still been smiling…

"Hey, hey." Dick's hands were warm against the side of Duke's face. "Come back to me."

Duke shivered, rubbing his eyes. Exhaustion had suddenly piqued through his body. "Sorry, sorry, I just…" He shook his head. "Sorry."

Dick stroked his cheeks with his thumbs. "We can visit her tomorrow, okay?"

Plastering a painful grin on his face, he nodded then slumped into Dick's chest. The smile peeled off his face. "Thanks."

"C'mere." Dick pulled him closer. The two of them fell heavy into the couch. It pushed back a scrape with their weight.

Duke fiddled with the hand on his waist. "How did you get out?"

Dick snorted. "Why do you always ask? I'm never gonna tell you." He kissed the top of Duke's head. "You wanna continue or watch something?'

Watch something was viable but Rinsky still remained on the back burner, his hand clenched tight around Damian's arm right before he _literally vanished in a flash of smoke_. Watching something was not going to be as distracting with that on his mind.

Duke rolled over until his ass was over Dick's lap, thighs on either side of his legs, and hand pulling tight back on his hair. "I believe you were _doing_ something hostage?"

Dick grinned, shot up quick to kiss his cheek before squirming down until his mouth was at crotch level and his teeth were already tugging at Duke's belt.

 _This_ would be far more distracting.

And if they were lucky, Damian would be back in time for round two.

Or three.

* * *

Weight dipped against the side of the bed. Duke's eyes snapped open but Dick only mumbled and snuggled in closer. Duke shifted up. In the low light, he could see a short shadowy figure at the end of the bed, peeling off its clothes.

"Dames?"

"Astute observation," Damian said. For a moment, it sounded like teasing.

Duke grinned and pushed at Dick's chest. As Dick roused awake, Duke turned on the bedside table lamp. "How'd it go? Did you guys get him?"

It was around four A.M. Damian had been gone for a stupid amount of time.

But he seemed uninjured, just tiredly taking everything off.

That was a good sign.

"Yes," he groaned, pulling off his tunic. "But it was difficult. He'd stolen a group of children from an overnight stay at a church and forced them to dress up as Robin."

Dick shot up. " _What?"_

Damian yanked off his boots. "Relax, Richard. He was merely attempting to emulate me. He claimed if I would not go with him, he would take them and mold them until they were me in everything but physical appearance. Since Robin is the form I take, he merely chose that."

Dick didn't relax. "Well, what happened?"

"He'd attached a bomb to each one individually. If they tried to move or were moved more than light breathing, it would deactivate. And as fast as Jon may be-" He threw his second boot off somewhere in the corner. "-he is not as adept in disarming as I would prefer him to be by now.

"Which meant I had to seek out every child he strapped, disarm them with even more attention to detail than usually required and then take him down. He tugged off his tights and flopped backwards. "Which all took more time than it should've because the man is a former League member and much more skilled than the petty villains we deal with day-to-day."

"You mean, night-to-night," Duke muttered. He eased away from Dick allowing Damian to squish in the middle. He'd been initially reluctant to be the middle spoon but, after a few months, began seeking out the warmth on all sides. "The kids?"

"Traumatized but otherwise in perfect condition."

"And Rinsky?" Dick asked, his hand curving protectively over Damian's waist.

"In custody. I watched them throw him back in his cell and gave them better tips on keeping him contained." Damian rubbed his face. "I would've gone up against him myself early on but Drake worried about him remotely detonating the bombs if I had."

"That's fair," Duke whispered, brushing Damian's hair out of his eyes. "He is insane."

Damian snorted. "An unfortunate side effect. Perhaps he'll grow out of it as I did."

"Well, the difference between you and Rinsky is that you had a stubborn mentor who loved you and he has guards ready to shoot on sight," Dick mumbled into Damian's neck. His shoulders were relaxing slowly, the stress of what Damian had said slowly slipping away now that he was with them and Rinsky was behind bars again.

"Loved?" 

Dick sighed. "You're right. I _liked_ you first. Then, once you stopped being a brat, I started loving you."

"If my arms didn't feel like lead from holding them stiff while I clipped at wires all night, I'd slap you," Damian threatened. "Luckily my legs still work."

Dick yelped and bit at Damian's ear in retaliation.

Duke snorted. "Go to sleep. Our hero deserves some rest." He tugged Damian close. "And love."

Damian groaned but let Duke pull him up into a sleepy and sloppily wet kiss. As they separated, Dick pushed himself up enough to do the same. Once he'd resettled against Damian's back, Damian let out a satisfied noise and snuggled into both of them.

How he managed it was always a mystery.

"Drake seemed unaware of our relationship," he murmured. "As well as Father's decision to ban you from the manor."

"Awesome," Dick said flatly. "Been wondering why I wasn’t getting a dozen messages about why Bruce seems pissed every time he says my name."

"Don't be ridiculous," Duke muttered. "Tim doesn't question the suspects first anymore. I'll get them before you will."

A ding went off in the drawer of the bedside table.

"If that's Tim asking questions, I'm going to find whoever manages the comedic timing of my life and smother them," Dick grumbled.

For the sake of his sanity and the exhaustion in his eyes, Duke ignored the notification and turned off the lights. All the people he currently wanted to interact with were right in front of him.

Everyone else could wait.

* * *

The box on top of the box he gripped teetered as Damian shimmied into the apartment. Duke had propped open the door with a bag of Alfred’s litter. He was currently downstairs, loading up more boxes to be carried up from Dick’s car. Meanwhile, Dick had gone upstairs with one box and hadn’t returned. Damian was mildly aggravated by that. They could unpack _after_ they brought them all up.

But as he rounded the corner of the doorway, Dick’s voice echoed out angrily and his aggravation sank deep into the depths of his belly.

“Look, _Commissioner_ , my transfer was already cleared. I’ve already set up everything. I’m literally moving back to Gotham as we _speak_ .” Dick clenched his hand around one of Titus’s chew-toys. The eyes of the squishy frog bugged out so much he thought the toy was going to _pop_ . “As far as Bludhaven PD is concerned, I _no longer work there_ . Just tell me why the hell I haven’t gotten any information on it _in the last month!_ ”

Damian set the box down on the counter. Dick hadn’t noticed, back tensed and his hands furiously fisting the toy until he’d finally settled on just squeezing it so hard Damian was surprised it hadn’t exploded yet.

_“Jim, just tell me the damn truth!”_

“Richard?” Damian started testily. Dick swung around. He barely relaxed but grinned through his teeth.

 _I’m fine_ , he mouthed, listening to Gordon’s words. 

_Liar_ , Damian thought, relaxing against the counter.

Dick’s eyes went black. “Are you- are you fucking shitting me right now?” He swung around. His hand snapped up like he was going to punch the wall. Instead, he drew it back, slowly and meticulously. The frog toy pressed to his cheek. “How does Bruce have anything to- No. You know what? It doesn’t matter. Who I’m with has _nothing_ to do with the job I do? It’s not illegal! I don’t do illegal activities!” Dick went quiet for a brief second before snapping, “That doesn’t count and if you’re going to blame anyone, Bruce should _definitely_ be in there with me!”

He turned around, eyes squeezed shut. Pain etched into every surface of his being. His eyebrows were drawn downward, head lowered as he breathed slow and deep. He was trying not to blow.

“If,” he near snarled through gritted teeth, “you’re really concerned about _that_ , you can ask Damian yourself.” He jabbed the phone towards Damian.

Damian took the phone gingerly, pointing out the doorway. Dick didn’t even hesitate to leave, muttering under his breath as he stormed off to the lobby.

“Hello, Commissioner, how may I help you this fine day?”

Gordon sounded weary beyond remorse. “Damian,” he sighed. “Hi.”

“It’s none of your actual business, Commissioner, but seeing as you seem to think inserting yourself into our private life is a necessity in this case, I’ll be prompt. Duke and I are very happy with Dick. He did not manipulate us. This is not a glimpse of his moral compass, which, you should already know, is wired straight on the side of justice.” Damian dragged a finger over the wall. “That should be all that’s necessary.”

“Damian, you have to know. I was more than thrilled to have Dick on our force. His… nighttime activities aside, his arrest records and work ethic in Bludhaven is abnormally impressive,” Gordon said. “But this… relationship you have. It would make us look bad. The Gotham PD is already on everyone’s last nerves what with all the insanity that goes on here. We don’t need a reason for people to think we are incompetent to point of hiring… well, pedophiles.”

“Richard is not a pedophile.”

“Believe me, I would never think that,” Gordon said thickly, voice laced with a deep edged honesty. “But as this relationship grows more evident, it will draw attention. People will talk. There are already people who assume Bruce isn’t exactly… the best parental figure. And Dick met you when you were at such a young age, that abuse isn’t the only concern. Grooming, manipulation - these will all get brought up.”

“And when they do, we’ll handle it.” Damian flickered his eyes up to Duke’s. “We’re not incompetent. We’ve prepared for this.”

 _Who_? Duke signed.

 _Gordon,_ Damian mouthed back.

Duke winced and dropped a box at his feet.

“Damian-”

“I know my father has likely requested you use whatever excuse possible to keep Richard out of Gotham for the foreseeable future, but none of this is any viable reason to keeping him away.” Damian squeezed Duke’s hand fleetingly as he jogged back out the door. “But, if you do need some other force aside from my father’s influence, here’s this. 

“You can either fast-track Richard’s transfer so that he starts next week, as intended, or I release a file I’ve contained on all of GCPD’s officials regarding bribes and other heinous scandals. Ones that will surely blow any consideration of our relationship out of the news blotter for time to come.” Damian brushed off a piece of lint from his sleeve. “I had been intending to _anonymously_ hand it over to you when I had sufficient information on a few more detectives I’ve been investigating but I’m sure the thirty or so officers and other officials will be fine.”

Gordon’s breathing all but stopped. Damian waited patiently for him to process the information. 

“You- you couldn’t _possibly_ -”

“I am very often bored, Commissioner,” he said. “Do you doubt my efficiency?”

There was a break in silence, Gordon’s breathing heavy before he snapped, “Give Dick the phone.”

Damian’s lips twitched. He bounced the phone in his palm as he walked over to the door. Dick was exiting the elevator, balancing a box labeled clothes on his head while Duke shouted at him to watch out. Dick bounced the box from his head to the top of the box in his left hand. Damian took them quickly, passing him the phone back.

“Jim! Give me the good news,” he said, shifting the box in his right hand to hoist on his hip as he walked back inside.

Duke paused behind him. “You make some very credible threats?”

“Extremely credible.”

“That’s my boo.” Damian rolled his eyes. “Mi corazon. Mi amor.”

“Duke-”

Duke just grinned widely, back up into the doorway while he listed more terms off. “Ah, my love. My _honey_ . My _darling_.”

Dick pocketed his phone, finally relaxed. “Habibi.”

Damian’s face burned. “Shut up.”

“What?” Dick laughed. “It’s sweet.”

“And that’s exactly why I’m never saying it again,” Damian muttered, shoving the boxes into his chest and ducking low as Duke tried to snag him.

“Dragă,” he teased anyway, turning to eye Dick over.

This time Dick flushed. “Stop making my mom’s words sound so dirty.”

“That’s exactly how _you_ say it!” Duke protested.

“I do not!”

“Yes, it is! Damian, tell him!”

“I refuse to engage,” Damian said, ducking out the doorway and over to the elevator.

 _Habibi_. My love. His mother called him that sometimes, even now, but he never said it back, never said it free of his will to anyone. It had been a slip of the tongue when he’d said it to them. It felt like a confession, spoken into skin as they touched him intimately, burned themselves into him and buried him in affection.

He knew, deep down, there was nothing wrong with it. But the words themselves - they were hard to issue when he was sober-minded. Doing so while caught up in the actions of others made him feel exposed, even more so than he had been. He’d barely even noticed until Duke asked him what it meant later that evening.

There were many things that he had gotten over from his years in the League. Being beaten half to death until he was victorious, even in training, was something he no longer did. He let himself lean on others. He’d accepted that there would be times he would have to defer to the leadership of others even if he saw them as lesser, doubted their choices, their words.

That was a more difficult thing to do but it helped that he had his own team now. People he respected, people he liked, people who called him _friend._

But admitting his own emotions was near impossible for him. He still struggled to acknowledge when he was injured or hurt, to let loose his worries or insecurities, much less something as exposing and vulnerable as _love_.

He was trying though. In every touch, every word, every cuddle, he tried. He wanted it to be more than clear. One day, he would manage it. He would confess love without hesitation, as freely as Dick had done since the moment they’d met.

But even so, they accepted him how he was. He could never say the words verbally without struggle, he could never make that admission loud and clear, and they wouldn’t complain. They wouldn’t give him up.

They knew.

And that was enough.

* * *

Dick was wandering the store with a sales assistant at his side while Duke and Damian lounged on a display couch. Damian was texting Jon. He'd sent the team on a training mission to Brazil to free Goliath from some traps Damian had put up. It would be Jon's first time leading one of these sessions.

Duke leaned over into his side, trying to catch a glimpse of the texts. "How's it going?"

"They've figured out it's Brazil," Damian said, a slight twitch to his lips. "They've arrived at the location." He stepped out of his messaging service and glanced up. "I wouldn't be surprised if they're completed by this evening."

"That's great," Duke said. "You must be thrilled. They're gaining more ground."

"I am… not displeased," Damian admitted slowly. His lips twitched again.

He was happy.

Duke knew that Damian was limited in how he understood and interacted with others. Much of his training with his team split between the way Bruce trained them and the way the League had trained him. There was only so much one-on-one he could take and, as much as he would never admit it, there was always a part of him that favoured the League's methods a little better.

But he never led his team anywhere dangerous like the League had done and demanded constant updates. The one time they missed an update deadline, he'd had what could only be described as an internal meltdown and left to go collect them. They had been fine. Just so caught up in the training it'd slipped their minds.

It was a constant toeing of the line between what would make them the best in his eyes and what wouldn't kill them. Jon and Colin were a bit more durable. Maya and Suren a little less so.

But they trusted Damian and he cared about them.

So yeah. He was happy. Duke could see that.

"You know you are allowed to smile that they're finally figuring everything out faster," he said, nudging Damian's shoulder with his own.

Damian didn't say a word, just sent him a look. He turned back to face the front. "Where is he?"

"Think he went to go look at the rugs again," Duke sighed. He tilted his head back.

Interior decorating was not his style and Damian's tastes leaned between stoic professor from the 20's and prison cell. All Duke cared about was having furniture. Damian was too meticulous.

So Dick got to pick everything out.

Except the art.

That would land on Damian.

He'd already demanded it.

Damian shifted uneasily. His thumb picked at the edge between his phone and the case over and over again. Duke sat up.

"What's up?"

Damian blinked at him. Then scrunched up his face, unsettled. "He is happy, right?"

"I think if he wasn't he would've said something by now," Duke pointed out. He brushed a hand over Damian's hair, sweeping it all off to one side.

Damian pushed it back without looking at him. "That's not what I meant." He frowned. "I worry. He is happy with us but… people need people. _He_ needs people."

Duke dropped his eyes to Damian's hands. "And what if we're not enough for him?"

"We have dealt with this privately. Doing so is different from being public," Damian said slowly. "Father's reaction was… anticipated but not expected. Gordon was a surprise. What if his people abandon him as well?"

Duke paused to contemplate that. Dick was a friendly person. Charismatic. Charming. It helped he was beyond pretty but even if he had the looks of a sewer goblin, Duke had a hard time envisioning him as someone people didn't want to get to know.

But Damian had a point. He himself had found his people, his group, his team. It had been difficult. Some days it still was, but they were his and losing them would be hard.

Duke had found his people in the Robin epidemic and knowing their astute observational skills would reveal him as Signal unnerved him enough to lose them and that had burned. He had found Claire and Kenan shortly after and then lost one of them too soon. He knew very well that some people just couldn't be replaced so easily.

That some people would never be replaced or substituted.

Even for the friendliest of people, losing those close to you would be difficult. Dick truly thrived from other people. He made friends wherever he went. He'd managed to even befriend, to some extent, Damian hen he was ten years old and basically feral, trying to kill Tim and stab everything in his path.

If his friends did give up on him, would they be enough?

"Sometimes I worry that he's only with us out of crisis," Duke started slowly. "I mean, after you throw yourself out enough windows, buying a sports car doesn't have the same thrill. But… Dick isn't stupid. He's more experienced than us. So I don't think he'd do anything as serious as this without really considering the consequences.

"Eventually he was going to have to tell them. If he thought they'd react badly, if that was important to him, he would've done something about it." He reached over and squeezed Damian's hand. "He hasn't. So we must be."

Damian's eyes bore into his. Then, finally, he smiled soft. "I care for you," he said slowly, his way of expressing love when the words lodged in his throat.

"I love you too," Duke murmured, kissing his cheek quick.

He tilted his head back, listening to the continuous spa music overhead. He needed to check in with Kenan sometime soon. It'd been a month since they last videoed each other, six since they'd seen each other in person. 

He made a mental note to make a physical note to get Kenan's ass on the computer sometime soon.

"Hey, I've got everything," Dick said. "You guys wanna look?"

"Nope," Duke clicked. "Just go pay so I can go to the food court."

Dick snorted, pulling out his wallet. "Dames?"

Damian looked down at his phone. "After the race car bed incident, I find it hard to trust your decorating style but I'll let it slide this time."

Dick rolled his eyes. "I thought you'd like it!" He frowned down at his wallet. "And I left my card at the house. Great. Stall her. I'll be right back."

"Richard," Damian huffed. He popped open his phone case and stuck out his own card. "Take it."

Dick did. He stared at it in his hand for a moment. "Huh. So this is what having a sugar daddy feels like."

Duke choked on his own breath. Damian's head snapped up. He stuck his hand back out. "Give it back," he ordered.

Dick just grinned while Duke wheezed through his mouth, trying to clear his lungs and _stop_ laughing.

"Thank you, _Daddy_ ," Dick teased before running off before Damian could strangle him.

Duke howled even louder, moving into Damian's side to muffle his voice on his shoulder. Damian's olive face had grown dark with embarrassment.

"One day, I will destroy him," he said quietly. He kicked Duke's foot. "And _you_ "

Catching his breath, Duke cleared his throat. "I look forward to it." He giggled a little bit more into Damian's shoulder before finally drawing away. "Oh man. Is that something we should do?"

"I am breaking up with you both," Damian grumbled, sinking into the cushions like he was trying to disappear.

Duke grabbed his hand. "Nice try. You're stuck with us." He tugged Damian in close and kissed his cheek again.

Nearby, a woman balancing a toddler on her hip was watching them. Duke ignored her but the moment Damian noticed her, he stiffened. Pausing a moment, Duke began to pull back. Being watched meant nothing to him but he knew being observed while vulnerable made Damian antsy.

However, Damian tugged him still. His eyes were still trained on the woman, who was now browsing some magazines. Every few seconds, she'd glance over to them, her brows furrowed, before he gaze would drift to Dick at the register. 

She knew.

She figured it out.

That wasn't too big a concern for Duke but Damian…

"Hey, ar-"

Damian cut him off with a kiss. It was brief, merely a touching of lips together but the ginger way Damian's skin brushed over his had Duke shivering. Once Damian had resettled against the back of the couch, his sweaty hand still holding Duke's, Duke glanced back over to the woman. She was stiffly reading a magazine. Her toddler was settled down to her feet, holding onto her at her belt loop. As she swayed in place, Duke saw her phone in her free hand, tilted up but away from her.

Like she was trying to take a sneaky picture.

Duke had done it enough times to know the method.

He took a pause. Collecting light into his eyes, he saw it. Her camera had slipped out when Damian pulled Duke in. She'd taken the picture already.

So what was she waiting for?

"We good," Dick chirped. Duke nearly burst out of his skin. Dick's hand came to rest on his cheek as he handed Damian back the card. "Hey, you okay?"

Dick.

She was waiting for Dick.

"Yeah, I'm fine." He glanced back at her. The phone was less subtly pointed in their direction now. Her magazine hung flimsy from one hand. He cleared his throat and drew his gaze back to Dick. "Food court?"

Dick nodded but his eyes drifted over to the woman. "Oh." He hummed and turned back to the two of them. A sleazy grin slid over his lips. He caught both their free hands. "Wanna make out?"

* * *

Cass dipped her french fry into the blob of ketchup split on the napkin between them. Bruce never knew why she did that but it was sweet of her to do so. He smiled gently and dipped his own fry in it.

“So how are your lessons going?” he asked. “Are they keeping you challenged?”

She didn’t answer. Her focus trained somewhere over his shoulder. He paused to give her time to take it in but when she didn’t say a word, her eyes narrowing and her body growing still, he turned slow to see what had caught her gaze.

Dick was standing in line. His head was tilted back, reading the menu written up on the chalkboard. Bruce’s stomach churned. He was too relaxed, hands in his pocket, unconcerned.

There had been a point when Bruce had trusted Dick with his life. If he died or vanished, he trusted Dick to take his place. Protect the others. To continue on as he had, bringing sunnier days to Gotham as best as he could.

But seeing him with Duke and Damian had been… eye-opening to say the least.

Bruce swallowed around the distaste and building displeasure in his mouth. As he turned back to Cass, a jingle at the door caught his ears. Her eyes almost immediately snapped over, like a hawk.

Dick twisted where he stood. A grin split his face as Damian and Duke walked over to him. Damian hovered close to the two while Duke kissed Dick’s cheek and swung his arm around his waist.

“I thought you guys were going to unpack,” Dick laughed, ruffling Damian’s hair quick.

It was something he’d done since Damian was a child, something Bruce had done to him.

The action rippled through Bruce’s stomach.

“I was concerned that your high focus on sugar would have you select something unappealing to me,” Damian remarked.

Dick snorted. “Okay, so I guess you didn’t want a chai tea and a veggie burger?” He turned on Duke. “And you did not want a whole box of donuts and two oversugared coffees?” Duke stuck out his tongue. Dick grinned. “Been gone for five minutes, what, you miss me that much?”

“Don’t flatter yourself, Richard,” Damian said, but his hand bumped lightly against Dick’s.

They did, Bruce realized.

They did miss him that much.

The way they all stood beside each other. Comfortable. Content. Damian stood at full attention around anyone, especially in public. The few times Bruce had seen him fully relaxed, he’d been in the manor or alone in his room, deeply engrossed in a book or drawing. Even in his sleep, Damian was stiff as a board and ready to burst at the slightest motion from another person.

But now he was loose, leaning close to Dick without touching him. He didn’t shy away from the way their fingers grazed each other.

Meanwhile Duke was leaning into Dick’s side. His eyes had long since fluttered shut. There was a lack of awareness about it. Someone jostled him as they shifted away with their order and he startled. It was surprising.

After Claire’s death, Duke had almost seemed to crawl into himself. He never really wavered from focusing on the people around him, even if he had to use his powers to do so. It wasn’t like death was something new to him, but it had been, as it was for Bruce, slanted as though it was his fault. She died protecting him, used the last bit of her life force to maintain her powers to protect him and he never quite recovered from the incident in the last three years.

But now he was calm, uncaring of the people who bustled about around him, whereas he would normally be stiff and upright, attentive. His eyes were even closed, when they would be open, taking in the light to show what had and would happen in the seconds that fluttered by.

It was… disappointing.

What Bruce had done to comfort him had failed. 

But Dick’s mere presence seem to ease him like a glass of warm milk and a mother telling you soft whispering stories.

As they collected their order, they never seemed to notice him. Rather they were all wholly locked in on each other. Duke jogged to the door, holding it open as the other two slipped out. Without hesitation, his arm re-situated itself around Dick’s waist and he stole a sip of Damian's drink. Bruce looked away but Cass continued to gaze on.

Finally she turned back to him. “They are happy,” she said quietly. She dipped another french fry in the ketchup. “And ballet is going well.” Before she ate the fry, it hanging from her fingertips just bare to her lips, she paused. Then caught his eyes in an intense stare. “Do you think they’ll invite us to dinner? That’s customary… right?”

Bruce didn’t answer her question. “That’s good. That it’s still going well.” The question of how she felt about what they had just seen, what she knew, burned on the tip of his tongue, but Bruce withdrew them from his mind. “Do you know when your next recital is?” he asked instead.

Still watching him with a piercing gaze, she tilted her head and ate her french fry. Cassandra had always been perceptive. Observation was something she excelled at, even further than Bruce ever could. She was fluent in body language.

It made him wonder just how long she had known.

* * *

Damian perused the group chat while Dick observed whatever show was playing on Duke’s laptop. Something about an angel and a demon and the apocalypse. Trivial but entertaining, he had to admit. Duke had lost interest in the show in favour of lazily kissing the length of Dick’s neck. Spitting rapidly, he drew back and scowled.

“Ugh. Hair.”

“Then maybe you shouldn’t be trying to eat me,” Dick muttered.

Duke snorted and went back to leaving hickies. “Never,” he mumbled into Dick’s skin.

“Eat Damian,” Dick huffed. He swatted mindlessly at Duke’s face. Duke only nipped at his fingertips. “I’m trying to watch.”

“My skin will poison you, should you even try,” Damian muttered. He stretched loosely, fingering unhappily at the edge of his binder.

He would get surgery when his team was more prepared to take over while he was on bedrest and forbidden to hold his arms up for six months. With Jon’s recent success in a leadership role, that time was closing in.

It buried Damian in fear of what would happen while he was out of commission and unable to assist in the field but a thrill of freedom that would come from _finally_ reaching a goal he’d dreamed about from the moment his chest developed farther than skin and muscle.

Currently, they were trying to convince him to schedule it for that summer.

He was not having it.

 _No_ , he typed. _You still have a standard to achieve._ Maya sent a gif of woman in a fancy hat flipping him off. He rolled his eyes. _Soon_ , he promised. _You’re all getting very close._

They were.

He was proud.

 _No wonder the Titans hated you,_ she wrote back.

 _They didn’t hate him_ , Jon wrote quickly.

 _So pushy_ , Colin added.

_Stinky bloody boy._

_No!!!!_

Damian rolled his eyes. He could never tell if it was Jon’s ridiculous crush or his refusal to see the worst in Damian at any time but his sentiment was always sweet. Even when Damian knew he was being too much.

It came with the territory of being him.

Very few respected it, much less allowed it.

 _Suren, you’re up next,_ he said.

A few seconds later, Suren, who only ever wrote in emojis or one word answers, sent a thumbs up and then likely returned to whatever it was that he was doing. Probably Maya’s hair. Or eating more ice cream than a nineteen year old boy needed to.

He exited out of the chat and set aside his phone, leaning into Dick’s side comfortably. Currently the little boy was yelling hazardous things to his friends about a new world and Damian could already see the messages thrown his way when _his_ friends finally watched the show.

“They’re going to be insufferable about this,” Damian muttered.

The idea was already giving him a headache.

Dick snorted. “They wouldn’t be _your_ friends if they weren’t,” he teased. 

“Insufferable loves insufferable,” Duke agreed.

Damian leaned over to swat his thigh. “What does that make _you_?”

“Gorgeous, obviously,” Duke said, nuzzling under Dick’s ear before tugging on his earlobe.

“Insufferable.” Damain leaned over just enough to kick him. “Intolerably so.”

They settled back into their routine of Duke leaving hickies, while Dick intensely watched something and Damian slipped between watching and planning their next training mission.

Then the phone went off.

Dick groaned. “Little prince, tell your friends to shut up, I’m trying to watch.”

Duke drew back. “Actually, I think that’s your phone, babe.”

“Well then, tell my friends to shut up, I’m trying to watch,” he grumbled but he took the phone when handed to him and paused the show before them. “It’s Tim.” He answered it. “He-”

“DICK, WHAT THE FUCK?”

Dick immediately drew his head back. “Wha-”

“Why the hell is there a picture of you kissing _Damian_ all over the news? Please tell me it’s been photoshopped, what the fuck?” Before Dick could answer, Tim was shouting again. “It says you were in a furniture store, making out? And then buying lunch with Duke. You were kissing? What? Are you moving back? What is going on?”

“Tim, buddy, I’m a little busy,” Dick said, his finger hovering over the fingerpad. “I’m gonna call you back, okay? Good Omens is on and I wanna see if Adam stops being crazy.”

“What, no, Dick-”

Dick hung up and threw his phone somewhere to the left. It landed in one of his shoes. Immediately he hit play and zeroed right back into the show. Damian snorted.

“You could’ve broken that.”

“Then I wouldn’t have any more distractions, would I?” He shoved Damian without looking. “Now, shush, Adam.”

Damian groaned. “Bastard.”

“ _Shhhhhh_.” Another phone went off. Dick let out an infuriated groan and paused the show again. Pushing the laptop off his legs, he leaned over Damian’s to retrieve his phone. “I’m going to do what you never could and kill Tim.”

Duke pinched his ass. “It’s _mine_ , goofus.”

Dick groaned but didn’t raise as Duke answered his phone. “This is Duke, you’re on spe-”

“Duke! Hey, Roy just sent me this article?” Jason said. “Are you fucking Dick?” Dick let out another frustrated groan, squirming with all his petty weight as he pushed himself back up. Jason was laughing excessively. “If you’re not, this is a pretty convincing picture. Really lined everything up.” He started wheezing. “Oh shit, Damian’s here too. Passing yourself around the family, huh? When’s it my turn?”

Duke glanced over to the two of them and grinned. “I’ll let you know once I stop fucking Damian’s lights out.”

Damian scowled and kicked him. Duke yelped. In the pathetic show of self-defense, he threw the phone at Damian. Damian swatted it away and tackled him. “Don’t be _crass._ ”

“I’ll bite you,” Duke threatened.

“Jason.” Dick’s voice cleared through the air, agitated. They both stopped their tussling to look at him. “I’m in the middle of a fucking show. Call back about your stupid questions later.”

“OH SHIT, YOU ARE!” He started cackling over the speaker again. “Isn’t cradle robbing against the law, Dickiebird?”

“Jason, you broke into my apartment to punch me because I interrupted you in the middle of America’s Got Talent,” Dick hissed. “Go away or I will do the same to _you_!”

“It was the finale!” Jason protested.

“I don’t care!”

Damian rolled his eyes and plucked the phone from Dick’s hand before this argument could go on for another hour. As it had in the past. Three times.

How they kept doing it was beyond him.

“Todd,” he said calmly. “Fuck off.”

He hung up the phone and handed it back to Duke. Duke choked on a laugh. He managed to drop the phone off onto the bedside table before he pulled Damian down into his lap and howled into the back of his neck. Shivering at the heat of his breath, Damian squirmed.

“You know, I did tell Jason I was screwing you,” Duke mused. “Be a shame if that was a lie.”

“Insufferable. Intolerable.” Damain tilted his head back to catch Duke’s eyes. “Insatiable.”

“Be horny hippos somewhere else,” Dick grumbled. His foot nearly kicked Damian in the chest as he laid out on his stomach. “TV time.”

Duke grinned wickedly and skinnied out from under Damian to flop onto Dick’s back. He began slowly nibbling along the length of Dick’s throat. “You sure about that?”

“So confident,” Dick said slowly but his head kept tilting to the side, like he was trying to catch Duke’s mouth without looking away from the show before him. “Where the hell- Get down here.”

Damian snorted. “I thought you wanted us to be horny hippos elsewhere.”

“Nobody likes it when you do that,” Dick huffed.

He snapped the laptop closed and placed it under the bed before immediately rearing around and shoving Duke back. Duke landed against the pillows with a soft _pmph_. Laughing, he hooked his legs around Dick’s waist and pulled him close. His fingers dug into Dick’s hair. Dick groaned at the tug, following every pull Duke made without complaint or hesitation.

In the field he could be snarky and rebellious with orders but here, in their bed, he was obedient. When the mood fit him to be.

Dick groaned and pulled back. A sharp exhale fell from his lips. He whined low, a delicious sound, as Damian kissed the expanse of his throat. Duke's hand and focus was slowly deviating over to Damian who shivered as a hand worked its way past his underwear and squeezed his ass.

"Wait, wait, wait," Dick breathed. "I wanna- can we do it… like the first time?"

Damian paused. After a brief glance at Duke, he nodded. Duke withdrew his hand from Damian's pants, surging up to wrap his arms around Dick's waist. "Of course, mi amor." He kissed him quick on the mouth. "Just don't crush me with your fat ass this time."

With a light shove to Duke's shoulder, Dick laughed. "You like my fat ass."

The first time they’d all been together had been their first time with Dick at all. Duke was easy. Comfortable. They were both so new to intimacy that Damian didn’t feel out of place or ignorant. When he touched Duke, it was Duke’s first time and when Duke touched him, the sensations were new to him as well. Both of them were hesitant and clumsy.

And it was good for Damian that way. He never liked when someone knew something better than him, could do things better than him, and this form of intimacy was so unnerving no matter how much he desired it. It felt better to be on equal footing.

But Dick was different.

He had experience. Years of it. While Duke and Damian fiddled around, learning each other slowly, Dick surged in with ease, like he’d already figured out what they liked and had been storing it away just for this very moment. 

It was also embarrassing for Damian. Being naked around people wasn’t easy but the way Duke joked about his own figure made it a little better. They both had issues with their bodies. Dick, however, was a specimen. If Damian didn’t know better, he’d think he was sculpted into existence.

Damian had worn a loose shirt the entire encounter, fumbling, nervous about letting Dick _see_ him fully. But rather than be treated delicately, constantly asked about where was okay, taking every hissed breath as discomfort, Dick just touched him. He let Damian expose himself on his own terms.

The way it had wound up, Dick had sunk himself into Duke’s ass while Damian fucked him from behind. It’d been unnerving, neither of them having any concept of sex with more than just the two of them, and Damian had never fucked Duke like that before. The sight itself ingrained into his brain. He spent the following week getting himself on the memory alone, Duke’s heavy breathing and the way Dick’s back flexed. The way they groaned.

Damian never had the longest fuse.

When he was spent out, his thighs shaking, and Duke’s fingers bruising into his arms, Dick had shifted until he was fucking himself on Duke’s cock, getting off for a _third_ time. While Damian didn’t have the exact same angle, he was as captivated as Duke was with the sight.

They never did the exact same motions as much, though they all enjoyed it. For one, Duke didn't like that he couldn't see Damian's face behind Dick and Dick had the same complaint when it was Duke sandwiched between them. Damian was so ungodly smaller than both of them that it strained his legs to hold himself in position. A few times he found himself just splaying out on the others back and rocking back and forth that way, which he didn't think was an optimal as either of them kept assuring him it was. If Drake hadn't talked about having the same issues with his behemoth of a clone, Damian would've been more embarrassed to the point of never bothering to try again.

Duke cocked his head back, groaning as Dick sank into him slow and steady. “ _Fuck_ ,” he exhaled as Dick bottomed out with a slight moan.

Damian grabbed his strap from the bedside table, slinging it on. Dick hiked Duke’s legs up, humming content as he opened himself up with his fingers.

“How many fingers?” Duke asked. He slid his hands up Dick’s chest.

“Three,” Damian said.

“Eager beaver,” Duke mused.

Dick laughed, shifting as Damian pressed the head of the strap to his ass. “ _Never_ say that again. You sound like a mom from the fifties.” His voice hitched as Damian slid in, leaning into his back. “You good, baby?”

Damian hummed quietly, kissing along Dick’s shoulders as they eased into a steady motion together. There was something about the way Dick said it, the way Duke said it. _Baby_. Like he was precious. It made him feel comforted in some way. Small and loved.

Something to be taken care of.

Right now though, he wanted to be the opposite.

He snapped his hips and grinned when Dick let out a choked whine.

He wrapped his arms around Dick’s waist and snapped his hips again, grinning into the skin of his back. The two underneath him let out soft hitches of moans, every insistent shift from Damian pushing Dick into Duke.

It felt nice to be trusted in this way.

“Fuck yeah, babe,” Duke whispered, eyes fluttering shut, his nails scrapping against Damian’s thigh in an desperate grab.

Dick groaned in agreement. “ _So_ good to us.”

Damian snorted, kissed the back of Dick’s neck before letting himself relax back down to his knees.

Yes, he thought, pushing Dick into Duke’s chest as he hefted himself us above the two of them. He _was_ very good to them.

* * *

Damian readjusted the strap to his bag. Class today was… an experience. Someone had managed to coral the teacher into a discussion so far off topic for the whole of class that Damian wound up finishing an assignment for an earlier class while the other students struggled to derail the conversation back to the main point.

It never got there but Damian was finished with some homework and he already had flying marks in the class so ultimately he didn’t care. Advanced theoretical physics was child’s play anyway.

“Damian.”

He stopped. Mother stood in front of him, tall and imposing. People scampered around her like they were unsure if they should run or bow. He cocked his head. “Mother. What are you doing here?”

“Am I not allowed to see my son when I wish?” she asked, removing her sunglasses and pushing back her hair. One of Damian’s classmates gave a pained squeak and dropped her things. Mother sent her a small unimpressed look before reaching out for Damian’s hand. “Shall we?”

He didn’t take her hand but scoffed under his breath and nodded his head in the direction of the exit. “If we must.”

They found themselves sat down at a bench overlooking the pond. Mother pulled on some fur lined gloves. She folded her glasses into the collar of her shirt and watched the ducks waddle across the frozen water. Damian chose to watch her, waiting for her to get on with things but when she didn’t, he sucked his teeth and looked away.

“Why are you here?”

She didn’t answer the question. Just inhaled deeply and soft. She looked at him. “Was I a good mother?”

“Yes,” he said. She may have been evil but she wasn’t a terrible mother. “You raised me as you were raised. It isn’t your fault if it wasn’t an ideal situation. How were you to know better?” She smiled at him, something soft and genuine he hadn’t seen in years. He paused then, “Are you alright?”

Was she sick? Was that why she was here? Why she was asking strange questions? Something incurable by the pit? 

Her smile softened until it finally faded. She looked back out to the pond. “Your grandfather wanted me to take you. Years of using the Lazarus Pit has rendered him alive but painfully so. He wanted a vessel. Someone to take over or someone to sap vitality from.” She sighed. “He wanted you.”

“Are you warning me or kidnapping me?” Damian asked.

“Neither,” Mother said. “This was a year ago. He sent a team to find you but I… disposed of them. Shortly before I disposed of him.”

Damian stiffened. “You… you killed Grandfather?”

“He left me no choice,” she said as though the decision was as easy as changing a bedsheet. “Your uncle, my brother, had ascended to the role your grandfather had but it seems such duty does not become him.” She tucked her hair behind her ear. “I’ll be taking over in the coming days. Our relationship…” She looked at him. Misery struck her eyes.

He felt pained just looking at them.

“You’ll be my enemy,” Damian said. “More so than normal.”

She nodded. “I will be doing my best to keep my business out of Gotham. Not out of fear of what may come of me but rather… I don’t wish to see my son in the crosshairs if I can so help it. You are my most precious commodity, Damian.”

He took her gloved hand and squeezed it gently. “Children are not items, Mother.”

She laughed and brought his hand up to her lips, giving it a small kiss. “What is it,” she said slowly as she lowered his hand back to her lap, “that man of yours would say? You are a prince?”

“Yes,” Damian admitted, annoyed.

Dick’s voice echoed in his head. _Little prince_.

“Then you are my most precious prince,” she teased. She gave his hand a gentle squeeze back before letting go of him and watching the ducks on the pond once more.

He eyed her over, drawing his hand back to himself. “Are you happy, Mother?”

She blinked in surprise, as though caught off by the question. He could count on one hand how many times he’d been asked that while in the League. Most of the fingers would attain to her. He doubted she could count the same on one finger, much less one hand.

Still she relaxed into the bench and nodded slow. “I am,” she admitted. She looked at him. “I am very happy.”

She leaned down and kissed the tip of his nose and then again in the middle of his forehead, sweeping his hair out of the way. She drew to a stand, painfully slow and cupped his cheeks. She took in his face, as though it were the last time. With her upcoming status, it may have been.

Then she released him and walked off towards the parking lot. A giant SUV drove into the lot but didn’t park in any spaces. Damian watched her until she reached the edge of the lot then turned to the pond. For some reason, he couldn’t bring himself to watch her vanish completely from his sight.


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm back! let's do this!

"Do you believe her?"

Damian swirled his finger in his tea - a proclaimed horrible habit he picked up from Maya and had only just noticed. He had yet to break it despite trying but it did limit the amount of people who "accidentally" snagged his drinks (Tim), even if it didn't stop Duke or Dick at all.

Pulling his finger out, he rubbed his thumb to finger. "I do," he said slowly. "My mother may be despicable in all the ways the League is but she has never lied to me. Twisted the truth slyly but never a lie."

Duke nodded as he settled down next to Damian at the table with a stack of pancakes. Vanilla extract and syrup mixed into the batter. He cooked them in what everyone called an unholy amount of butter to the point that it seemed pointless to ever add more. Everyone could already taste it, could practically breathe in the flavour the moment the pancake dropped onto their plate. He still used it. Then he finished it off with a slathering of peanut butter, syrup and whipped cream on  _ each _ pancake. Sometimes he added caramel chips.

Damian always said it looked disgusting and smelled too sweet and yet he still always had one. 

Duke grinned and let Damian wipe off an excess of whipped cream from his to Duke's and leaned into him. "That's good, right?" Damian nodded but seemed forlorn. "It's okay if you're going to miss her. I know… your relationship is weird as shit but… she's still your mom."

Damian looked up at Duke, bore back into his eyes. "I will miss her," he admitted after a moment. "But I don't doubt we won't cross paths outside of Gotham some day." He looked down to the pancake on his plate and began cutting into it. "I'm just unsure of how far that day may be."

"She never forgets you," Duke said. "She'll probably come up with some scheme around your birthday to get you out of the city so she can give you your present."

Damian snorted but Duke saw his lips twitch. The rest of the afternoon teetered on from pancakes to making out to reading chapters from his textbook on Damian's lap while the other perused the animal planet channel. By the time, Duke's stomach starved for more food it was well into the evening.

He tilted his head back. His book closed over his thumb. "Did Dick say he was staying late?"

"No," Damian said. He frowned and glanced at his phone for the time. "Do you want me to-"

The door swung open. 

Dick seethed as he slammed the door shut. Titus jolted and barked at him, hackles raised even if he was too old to attack. At the noise, Dick glanced up. His eyes snapped from Titus parked by the window to the couch and blinked at the two of them peering at him from over top the couch as though surprised to see them. Then he sighed. "Best things I've seen all day."

He swooped down and kissed Damian's cheek, then Duke's, then started moving off towards the bedroom. There was no exhaustion in his eyes - just frustration and bubbling anger. 

Duke caught his wrist. "You okay?"

"I'm fine," Dick muttered, but he stayed rooted in place, even as Duke's hand slipped from his skin. He caught it and began massaging the back of Duke's hand.

It was a habit that Duke had quickly realized was supposed to be more soothing to Dick than it was to be for other people. Whether Dick had figured that out was still up in the air.

"Uh, I was just about to make something to eat." Duke gave his hand a gentle squeeze. "Pancakes?"

"I think that amount of sugar might kill me right now, babe." Dick slumped into the back of the couch. "So yeah!"

Duke snorted but swung his legs off the cushions and maneuvered over to the kitchen. Damian pulled himself up straight and watched Dick with careful eyes. The object of his focus was straining all his attention to Duke. His smile was thin and his eyes haunted, unfocused.

"Richard, what happened?"

Dick tensed even more. Under his jacket, Duke could see his shoulders raising. "Nothing," he said quickly. "I just- couldn't find a parking spot."

"Liar," Damian shot back. His voice was edged. Duke ducked forward, ready to mediate. Dick's eyes were already narrowing, upset, annoyed, irate.

Then he melted back.

"I had a bad day," he huffed. He rubbed his temple. "I don't want to talk about it."

"I do," Damian snapped. He swung himself over the back of the couch. "You're bleeding animosity. I don't like it." He pointed at the old cat curled up at the end of the couch. "Neither does Alfred."

Alfred was asleep and had no clue what was happening. But Dick's lips twitched. Then fell. He squeezed his eyes shut.

"Dick?" Duke started. He dipped out of the kitchen. "What happened?"

He grit his teeth but sank back into the top of the couch. "They wanted to have lunch." He pushed a hand through his hair. "Kor'i and Wally - and I went and it-" He exhaled sharply. "I told them weeks ago. They thought I was joking." 

Duke lipped his lips. "They realized you were serious. They questioned us."

Dick tilted his head up, exhaling slow. When he'd finally card himself down, he dropped his head. "I didn't let them get that far."

"You stormed off?"

"I didn't-" Dick glared at him. "I faked an emergency, thank you very much. I'm not a child."

Duke couldn't help the laugh that bubbled out from his throat. Dick sent him a sly grin as Damian thumped his chest.

"I'm sorry," Duke said.

"It's fine," Dick muttered. He pulled Damian in close and kissed the top of his head. Damian squeezed his free hand reflexively. "They'll accept it and it'll be fine."

He didn't sound so sure of that but Duke bit back any protests and feigned an agreeing " _ mmm _ ". Dick finally released Damian, pulled Duke into a similar tight hold, so tight he was sure Dick was trying to bury him into his body, and then, with a painfully obvious reluctance, left to the bedroom.

“He’s dying,” Damian said as soon as the door clicked shut.

Duke bit his lip. Finally, he dragged himself inwards, pulling his arms into his sides tight. “I didn’t think that’s how they’d be.”

“I didn’t either,” Damian agreed.

Dick’s friends had been at his side through childhood, through leaving Gotham, through losing Jason - through just about everything Dick had gone through. He’d love them. He celebrated, comforted, mourned with them. With Kor’i and Wally especially, there was something closely knit between the three of them that Duke envied and wished he would have achieved with his own friends. Something he was still hoping to achieve with Kenan, the only friend he had left.

Whether or not he’d actually admit it to them of his own volition, Dick was hurt by this. And scared of being left.

Duke glanced at Damian, who nodded slightly before turning to face Alfred. Emotions were not something Damian dealt with well.

Duke didn’t really handle them very smoothly either - a Batfam trait, he’d realized - but this was necessary and he was better at it. He stepped inside their bedroom. Dick was flung out on the bed, his entire face buried into pillows. He was still fully dressed. His tie was splayed over his shoulder, work shoes hanging off the edge of the bed. He seemed to be trying to melt into the blankets.

Duke settled down beside him.

“You know, Kenan didn’t take me seriously when I told him about us either,” he said. “Granted, the only thing he really knows about Damian is that he’s feral so…”

Dick laughed, light, pained,  _ trying _ . He tilted his head up. “I’m fine, Duke. Seriously.”

“You’re a people person,” Duke said. He sank down to his back and stared up at the ceiling. “Me and Dames - we’re not really like that but-”

“It’s just going to take a bit,” Dick cut off. He rolled onto his back and squeezed Duke’s hand. “You don’t have to worry. I’m not going anywhere.”

“That’s not what we’re worried about,  _ amor _ .” Duke pulled Dick’s hand up to his chest and fiddled with his fingers, long and slender. “We don’t think you’ll leave us, if your friends don’t accept this. We think you’ll become miserable and sad and lonely if the only people you have are us.” Duke glanced back at him. “Mental health, Dickie.”

Dick blinked. “Oh.” He closed his eyes. “If it comes to it - which it won’t - I’ll just make new friends.”

Duke snorted. “Easier said than done.” He dragged his thumb over the back of Dick’s hand. “Seriously, though. You’ve known them forever.” Dick exhaled sharply and rolled away. Duke caught him. “Hey, hey.” He leaned over Dick’s frame until his face was dangling close to his. “Talk to me.”

“It’s not-” Dick groaned and shuffled Duke away. He sat up, back to Duke, shoulders tense. “Everything feels like shit right now. I feel good here. I don’t want to bring it up in here and-” He gestured rapidly around the room. “-and ruin things.”

“You’re not going to ruin things. If you were, we wouldn’t be together.” Duke tucked a strand of Dick’s hair until he turned around. “Wasn’t bringing it up what brought us together in the first place, dumdum?”

Dick rolled his eyes. “Duke-”

“ _ Talk _ to me,” Duke snapped. “Seriously. Otherwise, I will beat you until you do, don’t test me.”

Dick stared at him. A haunting brokenness was bright in his eyes. His body held still, tense, like a single breath would destroy him.

Then he fell.

Duke caught him and dragged him in close. Dick didn’t cry but he shook.

“I’m so fucking tired,” Dick whispered as Duke carded his fingers through his hair. “No one at work likes me. I get all the most boring cases. People fucking stare at me for a whole new reason now. It’s exhausting. But, you know, I figured… at least they don’t matter to me.”

“And then they did.”

“It was so weird.” Dick dragged his thumb over Duke’s thigh. “Wally just kind of laughed and mentioned he’d heard some gossip back in fucking Keystone but he didn’t take it very seriously. Then Kor’i smacked him and it just seemed to finally hit that I was- that I’d  _ been _ serious for the last couple of months. And then they just kept… staring at me.”

He squeezed his eyes shut and pulled himself up tight, like a child hiding from nightmares.

“I hate people staring at me.”

Duke could relate. Pictures flashing. People watching him with pitying eyes, with painful grimaces. They’d speak and their words would just wound.

Dick exhaled shakily. “I trust them,” he said slowly. “I just… I just couldn’t stand it. So I left.” He sighed. “I didn’t mean to worry either one of you. I tried to hang back at the gym and work it out that way.” His voice soured. “Clearly didn’t work.”

“Yeah. Clearly just made you angrier.” Duke stroked through Dick’s hair. “You should call them though. Not now, but later. They’re probably freaking out too. You know how much they love you.”

“I don’t-”

“Look, Dickie, babydoll-” Dick snorted and Duke grinned. “-it’s a strange situation. If you had told me that you were hooking up with Damian, much less full on in love with him, I’d probably be shocked and confused too. Mostly because Damian’s a demon of a man and you’re a whole ass angel, but still.”  A sharp breathy sound wheezed out of Dick’s mouth as he laughed. Duke smiled wider and cuddled deeper into his side. “Your friends are your friends. Wally and Kor’i - I don’t know if they’ll approve but I don’t think they’d drop you. They probably just need more details and then… I think they’d get over it for you.”

From under his lashes, Dick peered up at him. Then he closed his eyes and sighed. “I’ll… I’ll call them in the morning. Right now I just want to sleep.”

Duke nodded and kept stroking his hair until Dick was snoring softly in his arms.

* * *

Throwing on his jacket, Dick walked down the stairs, ignoring the peering eyes of all the other officers and detectives around him, and out the door. He hangs back, slipping to the side, out of the way to check his phone.

Wally’s fourth message about redoing lunch gleamed back at him. When he had called the following morning, the two of them had apologized for not believing him when he’d admitted his new relationship status the first time. They even peppered him for questions how how it’d been going and he tried to supply as many details as he could. A week later they were requesting another go at lunch. He’d been hesitant to see them again. Kor’i seemed to get the message.

Wally did not.

Or maybe he did and didn’t care. Seemed more likely.

He did always like to run  _ towards _ the situation after all.

“Dick!” He blinked up from his phone and looked off to the side. Barbara was wheeling up to him, her smile bright but her eyes analytical and cryptic. She stilled in front of him, essentially forcing him to either stay trapped behind her or get in the way of the ever bustling doorway to escape. “How have you been?”

He sighed and pocketed his phone. Wally could wait. “Fine, Babs. How about you?”

Her smile thinned. “I’ve been well, thanks.” She tilted her head. “I haven’t seen you around in a while.”

He rolled his eyes. “Cut the shit, Babs. Just tell me what you want outright.”

Her eyes leveled at him, smile dropping completely. Without a second more to waste, she said, “You’re being stupid, Richard.”

Ah. Richard.

She always called him that when she was serious about something. Or when she was pissed off at him. Usually, those times tended to interlock.

“Pray tell, why do you say that?” he asked, sidestepping her the moment the doorway was finally clear of people and spinning around to face her, a free man, no longer a suspect being interrogated.

She rolled around, wheeling back to look up at him with heavy contempt. He gestured that they move along and she huffed but rolled forward, allowing him to push her along.

“How is this a real relationship?” she asked. “They’re both  _ so _ much younger than you. It’s inappropriate.”

He stilled her beside a bench and sat down on it, one leg splayed out over his other knee. He sighed. “Babs-”

“Not to mention, you are far too old to  _ still  _ be making stupid mistakes,” she said. “You’re just going to wind up hurting them, Dick. Do you really think you can handle the fallout from that?”

He locked eyes with her. “Why does everyone think our relationship is nothing?” She opened to retort, eyes already burning with the thrash of further insults and jabs she had ready for him, but he cut her off. “Everyone always goes to tell me that it’s a mistake without considering  _ why _ I actually want to be with them. Do you really think I’m that shallow?”

Her mouth clicked shut. Caught off guard, she was faltering. The anger behind her eyes dimmed, curiosity blooming forward. After a beat, she crossed her arms and asked, “Why then? Why them?”

“Because they make me happy.” She snorted, obviously not impressed. He smiled softly at her. “Seriously, they do. It’s not hard or easy. It feels… content. And I actually  _ want _ it to work. Every other relationship I’ve had, I let it fizzle out when it was dying. You know that.” He fixed her with a pointed look. “I mean, come on. If I came back to you after the way things ended, would you even have let me back in?”

Still unimpressed, she leaned back in her chair. “So why them then, Dick? Because what it sounds like is you couldn’t make an effort for people within your age but the moment two willing teenagers fall into your lap, you’ve jumped at the chance.”

“You really think I’m a monster then?” He eyed her. “Is that what you think of me? That I was a predator all along, waiting for the chance to groom someone into sucking my cock?”

She gave a light grimace at the crudeness of his words. “Don’t be crude. It’s an honest statement.”

“They make me feel settled. Everyone else was something wild and new and intense and rocky and for once in my life, I feel  _ calm _ ,” he shot back. “Not because I have some mythological power over them but because they don’t look at me like I’m supposed to solve all the answers to their problems or like I need to fake a smile every single day.”

His words seemed to cut her. She didn’t wince but she did falter back, dropping her arms to gently drag her fingers against the wheels of her chair.

“Would you rather I still be struggling from relationship to relationship instead of somewhere I’m comfortable?” he asked, genuinely curious.

Obviously, some people had that opinion. He wondered what hers would be.

“Of course, I want you to be happy but-” Her breath shot out of her as fiery as her hair. “You tried this before. Remember? With me and with Kor’i.”

“Yeah, but you hated each other,” he said. “You both treated me more like I was a prize to be won than a person in a relationship. Which was pretty upsetting given it was  _ your _ idea and yet civility appeared to be beyond you.”

She glared at him. “I  _ tried _ .”

“And so did I, but the problem wasn’t with me.” He pushed his hand through his hair. Sighing, he leaned back and folded his hands on top of his lap, turning his gaze to the buildings around them. “We don’t have that issue here. It’s much more mutual than it was with the two of you. A lot less jealousy for starters.” He dragged his nails underneath one another. “I mean, that was an issue  _ a lot _ . Something I could’ve stopped but… I’m only one man. I can’t help how people respond to my partners but I just trusted that they won’t betray me. I don’t know why the others couldn’t do that.

“I’m not that big of a slut,” he added in a little mutter.

Barbara had gone quiet now. Her breaths exhaled in slow and quiet measures. He watched her as she pointedly looked away from him now, her brows furrowed in thought. She gave a little snort - the only indication she was still listening.

“I won’t say I wasn’t a problem. I know I was. I’m not perfect. But so many issues, no one ever talked to me about and I was raised by an emotionally stunted man who didn’t ever give me the clearest way to broach those topics,” he went on. “And when issues did come up, I wasn’t the only person  _ not  _ trying to fix them.

“With them… I don’t have to avoid anything because I’m really not allowed to. Duke will kick both our asses before we could even try and it’s annoying but  _ fantastic _ ,” he breathed. “And for the first time, I don’t want to hide like some scared child worried about being left behind because I’m slightly less than satisfactory.”

She glanced at him at those words, slight surprise in her eyes.

“You should be surprised, Babs. I’m an orphan who was taken in by a man who loves perfection. He fired Steph because she never acted the way he wanted and he could barely be bothered to teach her.” He tilted his head, trying to shield her from the light that was blooming against her glasses. “Bruce wasn’t horrible. But that doesn’t mean I wasn’t scared he’d send me away for so much as breathing wrong.”

“I… I never considered that,” she said softly. Silence dipped between them. Her eyes sparked against his, bright, concerned, questioning. “Why didn’t you tell me?”

“Because I was traumatized and wanted to pretend I was fine,” he said. “I don’t have to pretend with them. I met Damian and then Bruce  _ died _ and I was shoved into a position I’d never even wanted and he could see that I was hurting so it’s never really been difficult to  _ not _ want to hide from him. He already knew I wasn’t always fine.” He gave a quick bubbling laugh. “And Duke’s observant as  _ fuck _ . You  _ can’t _ fake your emotions around him.”

Barbara gave a sharp exhale of agreement. A half-smile twitched at the edge of her lips before falling away.

After a few minutes of silence, she looked back up at him. “Why would you choose to be in a relationship with them, though, if you didn’t know beforehand it would make you  _ this  _ happy?”

“I mean, it’s like I said, right? I was raised by an emotionally stunted man who wouldn’t show me the love I was used to.” He gave a sour smile. “So I looked for it everywhere I could. And when they asked me, I realized it finally was right there.”

* * *

The inside of the apartment smelled like alfredo and chicken. Which, of course, meant someone that wasn’t Damian was cooking. Dick threw his jacket on the coat rack, dropping his bag on the couch before sweeping into the kitchen and tucking his arms around Duke’s waist.

“Hey.”

Duke tilted his head back, smiling up at him. “Hey.”

Dick kissed the tip of his nose before releasing him. “How was your day?”

“Fine. One class broke out into a debate about whether or not villains can be redeemed which, you know, was a little  _ odd _ for a math class but, hey.” He shrugged. “This is Gotham. I really should stop being annoyed when that happens.”

Dick grinned at him, leaning into the counter. “Did you join in?”

“I took a power nap,” Duke said easily, smiling back. He turned off the fire to the pan and stepped back, shaking out his hands. “How was your day?”

“It was okay.” He reached out for a granola bar. “Babs came to see me.”

Duke paused. His eyes raked over Dick’s, calculating, focused. “Oh.” He stepped off to the side, reaching for plates while refusing to remove his gaze from Dick’s form. “How’d that go?”

“Better than expected.” Dick tore at his wrapper. Granola crumbs sprayed everywhere. Briefly he wondered if they’d ever come up with a type of packaging that didn’t degrade the bars into little crumbs to be vacuumed up. “She heard me out.”

“And?”

Dick shrugged. His conversation with Babs mediated into a quiet silence between the two of them after his little speech about finding what he’d been searching for since childhood. Then she abruptly changed the conversation into a discussion on local politics until his lunch ended and he had to go back to work. She wished him well and left for the bus stop.

But that had been it.

“I’m not sure,” he said after a moment. “But I don’t think she wants to throttle me as much as she probably did so… upsides?”

Duke snorted. “Upsides,” he agreed. He notched his head towards the food. “Help me pour it out.”

Dick stuck his opened granola bar into his mouth and started portioning out the alfredo onto the plates while Duke rummaged around the fridge. He emerged with a carton of watermelon lemonade. Kicking the door shut, he snagged a couple glasses out on the drying rack and walked over to the table while Dick followed on his heels, carrying food.

As he sat down, he asked, “Damian staying late?”

“No, Maya wanted to do some training exercises so he went to go see them,” Duke said, wiping sauce off a piece of chicken and feeding to Titus who was lounging under the table. “Told me not to wait up.”

“Ooo, no Dami.” Dick leaned back and waggled his eyebrows seductively, though it probably looked utterly ridiculous if Duke’s snort was anything to go by. “ _ Whatever _ shall we do?”

Duke laughed and scooted over until he was right next to him. “I actually got a big test tomorrow, Dickie, so  _ I’m _ gonna be going back to my dorm to study until I pass out.” Dick pouted but Duke just kissed it away before digging in. “Cafeteria food was just sad today though, so fuck that shit, I’ll make something myself.”

“Your food is better than cafeteria food by a mile so, no complaints here,” Dick agreed. He nuzzled into Duke’s cheek.

They ate the rest of their dinner in silence. While Dick considered the benefits of eating more, Duke packaged the rest of it away into the fridge. As he stepped away, watching Dick start on the dishes, he asked, “So what about the others?”

“Hmm?”

“Your other friends?” Duke asked. “You talk to them like Babs or are they still being weird?”

Water rushes over his hands. His mind blanked out then he grabbed the sponge and soaped it up. He started with the plates first. He closed his eyes, relaxing into the scrub-a-scrub. It made it easier to not focus on the jumpiness in his stomach. “Gar called me up a couple days ago. He said congrats and then asked me if I remembered where he got his TV.”

Duke snorted. “That’s nice.”

“Yeah. Wally and Kor’i are pretty chill too. Now that they’ve gotten it’s not a joke and they’re happy for me.” He bit his lip. “Raven’s mad at me though. Well-” He winced and nearly cut himself on a knife. “Not mad. Not really. She, uh, she said- she was going to need some time because Damian’s time with them… ya know, made her feel like an older sister and it’s weird for her.”

Wrapping his arms around Dick’s waist, Duke kissed the back of his neck. “Well… at least she’s not trying to stab you. Upsides.”

“Upsides.”

“What about Donna?”

“Uh, she’s off with Diana, doing something or other with no cell service, but I texted her.” He stared at the soap suds on his skin. “I don’t… I don’t think she’ll be as peeved. She knows I’ve sucked with relationships in the past. She'll be happy that I'm happy.”

Duke giggled. “Does this mean we don’t suck?”

“I mean you  _ do _ suck but like…” Dick tilted his head back to catch Duke’s mouth and murmur, “In a completely different way.”

“You’re such a pervert.” Duke sighed. “It’s a good thing I like gross old men.”

Dick laughed. “What about Damian?”

Duke leveled a look at him. “What about Damian makes you think he  _ isn’t _ secretly an old man?”

Snorting, Dick turned his focus back to the sink and dishes. “That’s fair, actually.”

Duke stayed tucked around him while he washed. It was comforting to be touched closely, especially when he knew he’d be spending the rest of the night alone. Training his team into the evening usually ended up with him sleeping overnight, usually at Jon’s, camped out on the floor or cramped all together in a tiny bed that could barely fit the one much less five. But they all made it work and it was adorable and Dick definitely had secret photos on a locked folder on his phone that he was never telling  _ anyone _ about, just in case Damian found out and would delete them out of embarrassment.

He didn’t mind sleeping alone but he wasn’t a big fan of it when he’d been comfortably surrounded by another person’s heat for a while. It made him feel lost and empty. Coldness would seep into his skin from the empty side of the bed. It was as though he was leaking heat in hopes of mimicking someone else. In the end, he just felt hollow and chilled down to his bones.

A reason why he was so quick to jump from bed to bed.

He didn’t like that cold feeling.

Once more, Duke kissed the back of his neck then vanished off to go collect his things. He came back as Dick was drying off the dishes. He watched him patiently.

“Don’t you have studying to do?” Dick asked.

“Yeah, but I want kisses before I go,” Duke said. He pursued his lips. “Kiss, kiss.”

Dick snorted and swooped down to kiss from his low jaw up to his lips. Duke hummed, caught the back of his neck and pulled him in close, sucking on his lower lip as he pulled away. Dick groaned.

“Tease,” he breathed against Duke’s lips.

Duke snorted and squeezed Dick’s bicep. “If you want to come snuggle, text me.”

“I can survive without snuggles for a night,” Dick said but he leaned in and stole another kiss. “I’m just gonna miss you like hell.”

“ _ Text me _ ,” Duke insisted as he walked off.

Dick listened to the door fall shut, Duke’s footsteps vanishing and the sound of silence in the apartment echo around him. He took a deep breath and resumed drying.

* * *

Bruce hung a streamer at one end of the wall. He felt it go taut under his fingers and, when Tim called out affirmation, pinned it into place. He stepped down the stepladder and closed it, quietly putting it off to the corner for later use. Tim did a sweep around the room. Restlessly, he stilled to a stop in front of the fireplace and began tapping his leg to the ground in a staccato rhythm. 

As Bruce approached, placing a hand on his shoulder to calm him, he jumped but smiled. “Oh! I sent Steph to get some extra chairs from the dining room, but I just thought - is Dick coming?”

His voice faltered on the last sentence, as though suddenly remembering who he was talking to.

Bruce’s muscles went tight. He pulled his hand back. Instead of answering, he pointed to a batch of balloons tied together in the corner. “I think one of the balloons is coming loose from the ribbon. Let me go fix that.”

As he walked away from Tim, he contemplated the question. He doubted Dick would be interested in coming, likely just send a thoughtful email and a gift over with the other two. Should he be grateful if he didn’t? Or angry that he was ignoring a man who took care of him? It was a complicated situation. Had it been Bruce’s birthday he wouldn’t want Dick to show up in the slightest.

He undid the ribbon and pulled the balloons down to right heights before retying them together.

He supposed he still didn’t want Dick to show up. He was truly hoping he wouldn’t.

“I am here, I am queer and I am a zombie, let’s do this shit,” Jason called out. For once, he didn’t have a gun strapped to his thigh, but his jacket had a slight splatter of blood on the bottom edge. He threw his motorcycle helmet onto the couch and held up a small box with one hand. “Where’s the birthday boy?”

“Cass is keeping him distracted in the garden,” Tim said. He pushed a portrait a slight pass to the left and nodded approvingly.

Jason sighed, putting the box with all the other presents, before splaying out on the couch, pulling a small worn copy of Wuthering Heights from his pocket. “Oh, Timtim, if you think Alfred doesn’t have a fuck all clue what’s happening, you’re insane.”

“One can dream, Jason.” Bruce snapped his fingers at him. “Go help your brother.”

Jason groaned but put the book down and shifted off to Tim to gather more instructions. They may not see eye to eye but at least when it came to Alfred, Jason was willing to be civil and keep the family distancing to a minimum.

Stephanie walked in, a chair balanced on the top of her head and two tucked under her arms. “Hey, I get you your chairs.” She put the two down and gently removed the top one. “Do we need more?”

“I mean, I guess that depends on if Dick-” Tim stopped talking as the air in the room turned to acid.

Bruce clicked his tongue. “I’ll go get the cake.”

As he left the room, he could hear the faint remnants of Tim finishing his sentence and the start of Stephanie’s reply. He made no indication to listen any further.

The walk to the kitchen was not as clearing as he’d hoped it to be but steadying his hands under the cake and remaining focused on walking it back was easier. When he arrived, Duke and Damian were there, chatting freely with the others. Bruce’s body relaxed as he took in the room. No sight of Dick anywhere.

He set the cake down and didn’t ask about him. Damian’s eyes flickered over to him. He looked so much like his mother, Bruce felt like he was being cracked open and stitched back up with one steady gaze. His eyes flickered back to Duke. A thin smile slipped on his lips and he let out a low laugh at the story Duke was telling about his midterms.

It hurt in a strange way.

Talia was not an emotional person by any extent and neither was Bruce. Watching Damian grow had been like watching a feral cat attempt to adjust to the people setting food outside for them. Spitting, hissing, scratching and angrily hiding away when nothing else worked. But Bruce vanished for a year and came back to a happier cat. A creature still as feral as the day they met but calmer, having learnt to comfortably walk indoors for meals and accept the soft embrace of hands against its fur even if only for a little bit.

But Bruce was still the one he hissed at.

He knew. Deep down, he truly did know that Dick had not been planning this from the get go. That he simply saw a damaged child and chose to help and for some reason, Damian chose to trust him, but it still nagged in the back of his mind.

_ Why _ ?

Taking one more sweep around the room, Tim nodded and texted Cass to come down with Alfred. As he pushed open the door, he feigned shock at the sight of a bunch of people shouting “ _ HAPPY BIRTHDAY” _ at his face. Cass beamed, bouncing on her heels.

He placed a hand on his chest, gardening shears in the other. “I am so  _ shocked _ ,” he said. “Cassandra, how could you not tell me this was going to happen?”

She giggled, catching his free hand and pulling him further into the room.

As she pulled out a seat at the table for him and the others began to migrate around the room, soft jazz playing contentedly, Bruce slid up to his side and murmured, “How long have you known?”

“Months,” Alfred replied quietly. “Honestly Master Bruce, you think they’d be better at hiding things from me and yet I am always sorely disappointed.”

Bruce snorted under his breath before taking his seat next to him. Cass smiled across the table at him before they all dug into the dinner. They were halfway through the dinner Stephanie had taken two times to cook the right way when the door pushed open. Immediately, all the people at the table tensed, drawing back, save for Duke and Damian.

Bruce’s stomach dropped.

Dick’s hair was a mess of snow and ice as he stepped into the room.

“Sorry, I’m late,” he called out, stripping off his jacket. “They asked me to work some overtime this weekend and I lost track of time.” As he walked forward, he leaned down to rub his face against Alfred’s. “Hey, Alfie.” He lifted up the box in his hand. “We done presents yet?”

“Later,” Tim clipped. He pointed to the pile. “Uh, presents over there. Let me go get you a chair.”

Dick fingergunned and walked off to the pile. The moment he arrived the air in the room had turned as tense as one’s lungs felt when plunged into deep water, unable to breathe. With every passing second, it only grew tighter. As he walked around the room to lay his jacket down, no one said anything, though Stephanie tried in vain to begin something. Her sentences started and faltered.

Tim walked back in, carrying a chair. He seemed at a loss of where to put it, eyes flickering between Duke and Damian and then to Bruce.

“Oh, thanks, Timmers,” Dick said, voice cheery. He ruffled his hand through Tim’s hair before immediately walking over to the two who were just brimming with energy at his presence.

Everyone on that side of the table scooted down as he placed the chair down between them. The sound of legs against the carpet was soft and yet it echoed inside Bruce’s head like thunder.

“Hello babes,” Dick murmured, so soft that if the room had been a touch more livier it wouldn’t have been heard. He leaned down to kiss Duke’s cheek. Bruce’s hand tightened against his fork. Duke laughed under his breath at the touch and Dick shifted, leaning down to kiss Damian’s cheek as he shifted into his chair. The moment his lips touched skin, a sharp  _ crack _ broke throughout the room.

Everyone jolted.

Dick’s eyes, burning blue, snapped to him for the first time since he walked in.

The snapped fork end dropped from Bruce’s hand to the table. The jagged silver edge almost seemed sharper against the white of the tablecloth. He swallowed thickly. Embarrassment began to twitch its way up his stomach, but he simply feigned a slight smile and collected the head of the fork from its place thrown halfway across the table.

“Sorry about that everyone.” He stood up from the table, making sure to keep his composure resigned into himself. “I’ll go get another one. Continue.”

He left the room.

In the kitchen, he threw the broken fork into the garbage and leaned against the fridge, flexing his fingers to keep calm. There was no sense in becoming a mess simply at the sight of Dick. It would only wound him.

Since the revelation, Bruce had made no change to his schedule but he had seen Dick on patrol all of one time and even then, he’d vanished quickly the moment Bruce had appeared before him. It seemed ridiculous that he’d react so viscerally after only a couple of months. He hadn’t seen Talia for eight years and even when she appeared, Damian at her side, he wasn’t shocked. He had been around Dick for most of his life. His reappearance should barely register. Even when he lived in Bludhaven and chose to hang out in Gotham (for reasons Bruce was now choosing not to speculate), Bruce had no reaction of shock, painful or otherwise.

He collected another fork from the cutlery drawer and walked back. His steps dragged on as he grew closer and closer to the library.

He took a deep breath and walked back in.

The room was much more lively than it had been when he left but not as lively as it had been before Dick appeared. There was a heavy restraint lingering in all the parties present, save for the three tucked closely together.

Stephanie asked Duke a question and her lips thinned when he answered, feeding Dick a piece of chicken from his fork. Dick was eating left-handed, his right arm thrown around the back of Damian’s chair. Every few seconds his thumb brushed against Damian’s lower jaw. Jason’s eyes traced the motion, blank but blacker than Bruce had ever seen them. Shoulders stiff, Tim barely looked up from his plate at anyone, even as he spoke.

He wondered, as he sat down, if the rest of them felt as much rage and betrayal as he did or if they were just confused and uncomfortable with the goings on before them.

“So, Master Dick,” Alfred began as Tim set the cake in front of him to cut. “How has your transfer to the Gotham Police Department been so far?”

“It’s been fine,” Dick said easily, but his smile was as fake as it was wide. “No issues to contend with.”

“That’s nice,” Alfred said pleasantly and sighed in fake misery as they all broke into a loud rendition of the happy birthday song.Where the song would normally be obnoxious, it was restrained and tight, Stephanie and Tim quieter and less enthusiastic than they’d normally choose to be. As it ended, Alfred shook his head and cut into the cake. “How many times must I tell you to keep it down?”

“A thousand times more,” Duke laughed.

Alfred smiled pleasantly and cut slices for everyone. With Damian and Jason’s help, Cass cleared the table to the kitchen while Stephanie and Tim began stacking the presents onto the table. Dick reclined comfortably in his chair. He ate his slice of cake with ease. Damian was back inside first. Dick tilted his head back as he passed to his chair and Damian smiled softly at him.

“Hey,” Dick said, voice soft.

Damian’s voice was even softer as he murmured. “Hey.”

Their fingers traced together as Damian moved to sit back down. Duke beamed at the two of them, leaning across Dick's space to speak quietly to Damian. Dick's fingers just easily spread along the back of Duke's neck, stroking up and down in tight, minute motions.

Quiet distress stung through Bruce’s skin. He turned to Alfred, immediately asking about the gardening, needing a distraction from the sight. Every second was itching at the edge of his skin, upset and tension building up inside him like helium in a balloon. For Alfred’s sake, he held his tongue.

He just didn’t know how many seconds he had left to hold it in.

Everyone settled back down, passing presents over and insisting Alfred open theirs first. He started with Jason’s. It was meticulously wrapped together with pink paper and a green ribbon. As Alfred undid the bow, the wrapping paper shed off easily, revealing a pair of gardening gloves stacked on top of a box of rose seed and a guidebook to exotic flowers.

Alfred flipped through pages with interest before reluctantly setting it aside and thanking Jason with heavy appreciation in his voice. Jason beamed, a childlike light coming to his face.

They always had gotten along much more than any of the other children.

As eager to prove himself better, Damian pushed forward his two gifts with thick insistence, leaning so far across the table to push them center of Alfed’s view, the table cut the view of his legs off at his knee. They were wrapped in old newspapers. Alfred ripped into them with all the refinement of an elderly British man.

“Alfred, you’re killing me,” Dick groaned.

“He is a distinguished man,  _ amor _ ,” Duke said. At the pet name, everyone seemed to tighten up. Duke either didn’t notice or didn’t care as he leaned into Dick’s space. “Let him be distinguished.”

“Yeah, Dick,” Tim said, voice hollow. “Let him be distinguished.”

The first gift finally opened to reveal a lovingly rendered painting of Alfred tending to his roses in a bronze frame. The frame had flowers sculpted onto them. It only helped to serve the painting to look even more alive than it already did.

“Oh, Damian,” Alfred started. “This is lovely.”

“You’re welcome,” Damian stated before maturely sticking his tongue out at Jason who, just as mature, stuck his tongue out back. 

Alfred admired the painting for just a few moments longer before setting it beside Jason’s gifts. He tore into the next gift, pulling out a sweater. It was black with each of their insignias, past and present, embroidered along the bottom. He laughed as he turned it around to see the words “AGENT A” embroidered on the back like a letterman’s jacket.

“That one took much longer to make,” Damian said. He leaned into Dick’s side. “Richard helped.”

Dick beamed as he snuck his arm around Damian’s waist. “I stabbed my fingers  _ a lot _ .”

“You think you’d be more nimble,” Duke muttered and Dick leaned in to bite his jaw playfully while he laughed.

Bruce stood up abruptly. “Stop it, Dick.”

As the air around them thickened, Dick glanced up, eyes hard even as his expression remained relaxed. “What?”

“Don’t play stupid.” Bruce shook his head. “You’re making everyone uncomfortable.”

Dick leaned forward. “Seems like the only person I’m making uncomfortable is you, Bruce. Don’t ruin a perfectly good night because you can’t stand that I’m an affectionate person. It never bothered you before.”

“That’s not affection,” Bruce snapped.

And like a live wire, Dick sparked.

He stood up slowly, like a predator rising as it spotted it’s prey across the river. “You know what’s  _ not _ affection, Bruce? Turning every fucking child you take into a mini version of you. _ Fucked up _ and  _ damaged  _ because you don’t know how to be a normal person and the only thing you can do is keep replicating your internalized  _ crap  _ like we’re therapy dolls you’re trying to fix yourself on.”

Stephanie hissed, “Dick-”

“You fucking ruined all of us, you know that right?” Dick laughed, bitterness and vile burning through the sound and plunging through Bruce’s core like a poison. “ _ Destroyed _ us! You made me Robin instead of taking care of me, instead of letting literally  _ anyone _ else take care of me, when you so  _ clearly _ would never be capable of it.”

He stabbed his finger towards Jason. “You dragged Jason into your life because you couldn’t stand not having someone to push yourself on and he  _ died _ . You take in a random thirteen year old you don’t know all because he  _ asked _ ? Because  _ she _ asked? YOU WERE SUPPOSED TO PROTECT US, NOT FUCKING PUSH US INTO MORE PAIN.”

He pointed to himself. “ _ I  _ took care of Damian.  _ I  _ helped raise this family because  _ you _ were too emotionally incompentent to tell any of us you  _ gave a fucking shit _ and  _ I’m _ the bad guy?  _ Me? _ You didn’t even  _ want _ Damian around the first time.  _ YOU SENT HIM AWAY! _ ” Damian’s eyes dropped at the memory but Dick didn’t stop even as everyone seemed to lean back in an attempt to distance themselves, as though he was a bomb seconds from exploding and killing them all.  _ “You let her take him back.  _ To be tortured and beaten until he was perfect fucking  _ killing machine _ and you didn’t even care. You didn’t care what would happen to him, to any of us that you let go.

And you would’ve done it again, you  _ fucking asshole _ , if you hadn’t vanished on us.  _ I _ took care of him. I  _ loved _ him because no one else fucking would and you have the  _ nerve _ to pretend like it was you all along and that  _ I have no fucking right to it _ ?

“Everyday we all wake up and think of all this shit we  _ have _ to do and we do it and we  _ suffer and suffer  _ for it and the truth is, we don’t have to do any of it. We don’t! The rest of Gotham sure as fuck doesn’t  _ so why do we _ ?” He glared at Bruce, a pulsating rage exuding off him. “ _ Why? _ What’s the  _ fucking commonality between all of us _ ?”

His breath exhaled out in a sharp finality. “You are the person who screwed us all. You were supposed to say no. You weren’t supposed to drag a bunch of children into your bullshit and make us so paranoid about the world that we genuinely think we’re the only people who can  _ fix it _ and  _ no _ amount of knowing better can stop us from that because _ you  _ practically  _ burned it into our fucking brains. _

“You are a bitter,  _ fucked up _ man, who saw a traumatized child and couldn’t think of a better way to help him. And then when I left, you couldn’t bear not to have someone to discard all your fucking self-hatred and anger onto so you took Jason. And Tim. And  _ Steph _ . And you  _ broke them. _ ”

Stephanie jolted at the sound of her name, eyes wild and nervous, but she said nothing. Simply looked at Bruce with pain in her eyes but no attempt to fight back at the words.

None of them did.

“Why do you think we all  _ leave _ ?”

Bruce’s breath caught in his throat.

“At least I have the capacity to tell them that I care,” Dick said. “At least I actually give a damn to what happens to them in the field. At least I  _ don’t beat them for not agreeing with me _ .” He pointed at Bruce firmly. “So  _ fuck you _ , Bruce. And fuck off. I never needed to live with your shit and I certainly don’t have to live with it now.”

In seconds, he was at the door with his jacket thrown over his shoulder. He swung the door open. Before stepping through the threshold, he turned to Alfred and smiled gently. “Have a good birthday, Al.”

Then he vanished through the doorway, slamming the door shut behind him. The paintings on the wall rattled in place.

With his leaving, the tension in the air didn’t dissipate. It didn’t even drop. It held firm and steady as their obvious silence reigned on.

Dick hadn’t touched on Cass or Duke but no doubt it was clear he had some opinions, opinions he’d never voiced, opinions they all silently agreed on, and Bruce had no interest in delving into any of it, though he so desperately wanted to call out and ask them if they felt damaged by him too.

Duke sighed and stood up. “Uh, mine’s the green one. It’s got my name on it,” he said. He took his coat from the back of his chair. “The vibes are really gross in here so, uh, we’re gonna go.” He glanced at Damian, who was standing up. “Go? Yeah. Okay. Um.” He clicked his tongue and smiled grimly at Bruce. “I’m sure you did your best, Bruce.”

_ I’m sure you did your best _ .

It was a clear confession. Incompetent. Was that how they all viewed him when it came to being raised? To being cared for?

Damian didn’t say a word, just fixed Bruce with a short look before passing Duke on his way to the door.

In a way that hurt more. How could Bruce possibly be a worse caretaker than the  _ League _ ? Of all things. However, as he thought it, stomach tightening, Dick’s words echoed in his mind. A reminder of what they all had forgotten, or simply ignored.

Bruce had sent Damian away. He had Tim, he didn’t need another child. Damian may have been his son but he was likely a trap. An instigator, a distraction from what Talia was planning so when she took him back, he was all too willing to let him go.

For the first time in all his years of having Damian at his side, he finally registered the move as a mistake. Dick was painfully,  _ painfully _ right. Damian had gone back to the League and had likely suffered over and over again.

And Bruce had never once considered that.

“Good night,” Duke said, voice feigning cheeriness. “Have a pleasant rest of the party, guys. I’ll see you on patrol. Let me know how you like the gift, Al.”

He smiled grimly again, Damian sweeping through the open doorway without a second look back. Quietly, Duke followed. The door pulled shut with a loud  _ click _ .

That was the only sound the room heard for the rest of the evening.

* * *

Dick breathed heavily as he stepped into his car. Anger overtook him and he smashed his fist against the dashboard, grateful he took his shitty cop car instead of letting Damian ride him and Duke over on his bike. They had the good car and he had his shitty cop car that could handle a few bashings against the already fucked up dashboard.

The radio only played one station.

Pulling back he pressed his beaten hands to his face, holding back the sobs threatening to burst through his throat. Years of repressed emotions had been catapulted out of him, like a breakthrough in a therapy session. He imagined that was what it was like anyway. He’d only gone to three of them in his life and that was all centered around the time Bruce took him in and he’d faked through rehearsed words every time.

Therapy would’ve been an excellent look for all of them, but their nightlife definitely didn’t allow it and that’s where they saw most of their issues arise anyway. Bruce  _ definitely _ needed a few sessions.

He exhaled sharply and leaned back, trying to focus.

If his emotions kept battling through him like this, he’d wind up crashing his own car and what a way to end the night. Telling Bruce Wayne off for his pathetic ability to be a parent and then immediately dying in a car crash.

Someone knocked on the door.

He jerked and caught sight of Duke peering down at him through the window. He rolled it down. “You didn’t have to follow.”

“Why would we want to stay around someone who makes our boyfriend have a breakdown?” Duke retorted. “Go home, we’ll follow and talk when we get there, okay?” He looked Dick over. “Actually… do you want me to drive?”

Dick swallowed and then nodded. “Yes. Please.”

Duke nodded and said something to Damian that Dick couldn’t process as he fiddled with his seat-belt and crawled over to the passenger side, still breathing heavy and trying to control the tears that were pulling to his eyes.

Guilt was wracking through his stomach. It climbed up to this throat and choked him.

Ducking inside the car, Duke squeezed his hand reassuringly and gunned the engine. “Just relax, babe. Everything’s going to be fine.”

“ _ I’m sorry _ ,” Dick breathed but Duke cut him off with a well-placed kiss before he could continue.

“At home,” he said and began to ease out of the driveway, following the gleaming tail lights of Damian in front of them.

When they got home, Duke suited up but didn’t leave, even as Dick fretted around the room, pacing a hole into the living room floor, hands wringing restlessly together, and Damian stood silently in the kitchen, brewing a pot of tea.

It didn’t hurt what he said to Bruce but he hated that he said it in front of everyone else.  _ God _ . Such an asshole move. He’d just been  _ so _ angry. Dick was an affectionate person, always had been, and Bruce had never complained when someone was sitting in his lap or nuzzling into his neck or when he came down to the Cave to find Dick kissing Barbara while she worked. If anything, he seemed amused by it but said nothing and did nothing to dissuade him so he never bothered to stop.

But suddenly it was disgusting and vile when he’d done nothing of the sort. All he’d done was kiss his boyfriends once and hold them close. 

And Bruce’s insistence that it was uncomfortable to everyone made him angry because no one else cared. They all watched but they weren’t angry. Just adjusting to the scene. It was Bruce’s unholy presence like a descending storm that made the air tense and volatile, that made them all lower their heads and hide.

Always afraid of his words, his vicious tongue.

But he’d never meant to hurt anyone else.

The words he said, they echoed in his head like a repeat of all his mistakes from birth to present day. He’d called them damaged, he’d called them mistakes. He essentially copped up to thinking Jason would’ve been better off on the streets than with Bruce in a warm home with food available and wasn’t that  _ disgusting  _ of him?

He’d seen Jason’s face. Blanched briefly before turning stony and neutral.

Even if he agreed in some way, that didn’t mean those thoughts ever needed to be vocalized and Dick had crossed the line in insisting that. He’d crossed the line by just uttering his thoughts in their presence.

Damian hadn’t spoken the whole time they’d been home. His silence made Dick hunch deeper and deeper into himself, wishing he could take it back.

He’d never  _ ever _ meant to admit out loud that Damian was unloved. Even if they all knew it, they were never meant to say it. They were supposed to love him even stronger instead. Even Tim, who fought with Damian on the regular, would never have bothered to cross that line no matter how angry Damian made him and Dick, someone who’d taken care of him and loved him since he'd entered their lives, just spit it out like it was nothing.

Making Damian accept the fact that he’d been tortured was never a feat any of them could accomplish. All they could hope for was that he knew that life was different now. That it was better.

Dick had basically just spat in his face.

His stomach flopped as Damian walked back out, carrying a little tray with three steaming cups on it.

“Richard,” he said quietly. “Come sit down. You’re going to wear out the floor.”

Dick’s heart stuttered but Duke shifted over and patted the space between him and Damian. He couldn’t find it in his heart to sit there, instead kneeling in front of that space, still shaking. Duke’s hands went to his hair. The texture of his gloves rubbed against his skin and he sobbed.

“ _ I’m sorry _ ,” he whispered, voice wrecked with desperation. “I didn’t-”

“Don’t apologize.” Damian’s voice stilled him down to silence. He picked up Dick’s hands and pulled them apart, placing a cup into them and stroked down the side of Dick’s face. “You were right. Father’s love is conditional and dependent on how much you obey him without question. I’ve always known that, Richard.”

Dick exhaled sharply. “I still shouldn’t have said it, not when any of you were in the room, that was a shitty move and  _ I’m sorry _ ,  _ I’m sorry _ , _ I’m sorry.” _

Duke slipped off the couch, leaning into Dick’s face. “Drink your tea, babe.”

It took him a moment to bring the cup to his lips and drink because every time he started he pulled back to apologize and Duke would simply shake his head and push the cup back up, a silent demand.  _ Drink _ , _ amor. Calm down and drink _ .

“Maybe you shouldn’t have said it,” Duke started, “with us there but that doesn’t mean it was wrong. You were right. The only person who still lives there is Cass and she spends most of her time with Steph. In fact, she’s probably the only person who’s not as fucked up as the rest of us because of our time with him and that’s only because her situation didn’t really change from her dad to him. Which… says a fucking lot about  _ him _ than it does about her.”

Dick closed his eyes. “I have to apologize.” Damian frowned, immediately bringing his cup down. “No, no. Not to Bruce. Fuck Bruce. To everyone else. And Alfred. His poor birthday.” He breathed shakily. Heat steamed up from his cup and into his face. “I’m such a fucking ass.”

“You’re a person, Dick.” Duke squeezed his shoulder. “And you weren’t an ass tonight. You were right. Bruce needed to hear about that. I mean,  _ God _ , I’ve known Dami less than all of you and I had a far better relationship with him before this.”

Damian nodded in agreement. “Father is like Mother. He has no idea what he’s doing but he does his best.” He closed his eyes. “His best is somehow more painful.” When he opened them again, they were shining. “He still doesn’t remember my birthday.”

A knot exploded in Dick’s throat. He choked around it, miserable and needy and wanting so bad to pull Damian into his lap and care for him until he couldn’t even remember Bruce’s lack of love, until all he knew was love.

That was a selfish thought though. He couldn’t move his legs or arms. Could only peer up at Damian with understanding.

Damian sighed. “If you want to hug me, just do it.”

He didn’t need more permission than that. Slowly, he put his cup down and crawled up onto the couch, leaning into Damian’s space so heavily, he covered him up with his body. It was like he was trying to hide Damian from the rest of the world. He was. Damian needed no extra damage. He pulled him in close and buried his face into his hair.

“I shouldn’t have said any of that about you,” he whispered. “Even if you agree, you didn’t need to hear it.”

Instead of fighting back, Damian just gave an annoyed little huff.

“I’m curious,” Duke said, voice teasing, light. “What are your thoughts on me? We didn’t get there and I’m kind of jealous.”

Dick rolled his eyes. “Shut up,” he said, reaching for him. “Go away.” He snagged Duke’s hand and pulled him up. “Just shut up and leave.”

“Kind of hard to do that,” Duke groaned as he was yanked into the cuddle pile, Dick on top of them both.

He just wanted to protect them both so badly.

Duke wrapped his arms around Dick’s neck. “I just wanna stay here,” he mumbled. “I don’t wanna go on patrol. It’s gonna be so weird.” He sighed. “Maybe I’ll hang out with Cass, she’ll vibe fine.”

“Kong would probably come over for you,” Damian said, shoving back into the cushions so he could comfortably drink his tea without Dick’s body knocking it over.

“It’s like eight in the morning there,” Duke said. He sighed. “Yeah, you’re right, he’ll be up for it.” He nuzzled into Dick’s neck before pulling back and fiddling with his phone. Kenan’s face flashed as he selected the chat and Dick watched the glow of the screen against his skin. Damian leaned over and placed his chin on Duke’s shoulder, reading as he typed.

Dick’s heart skipped a beat.

He wanted to stay with them forever.

He sank back on his knees. Teetering on the edge of the couch cushions, he ran his hand through his hair. His heart was still pounding. Misery and self-hatred still bit into him. But he was coming down with their presence and calming energy.

“I’m not looking forward to tomorrow night,” he sighed.

Damian looked up. “I can take over.”

“No, I’m okay,” he said. He rubbed his eyes and leaned down to kiss his nose. “Thanks though, little prince.”

“Whoo! Kenan is in!” Duke laughed and leaned over to kiss Dick’s cheek. When he pulled back, his eyes traced him. He reached out to squeeze Dick’s hand. “Hey, go take a shower, okay? It’ll help you relax.”

Dick nodded and kissed the back of his hand, sighing deeply as he slipped off the couch, landing on the tips of his toes. Damian sipped at his tea while he watched him. Nothing but warmth existed in his eyes. Duke retreated back to his phone, waiting for Kenan to appear in all his Superman glory at the window, but he was relaxed and calm. Dick shifted off to the bathroom, shedding his clothes.

In the mirror, his eyes were rimmed red. His skin was blotchy. He sighed and turned on the water.

He really wasn’t looking forward to tomorrow night. But at least he’d get to come home to safe and warm love. That's all he ever wanted to come home to.

* * *

He flipped an escrima stick in the air. Catching it without looking, he dashed forward to a series of flashing lights, landing silently on the next roof over. But it was just a house party pounding away. Someone drew up to the windows to close the blinds and the lights vanished.

He sighed. Slow nights were always the worst. He considered the cases he'd been working on but the only man he could justifiably check on didn't do dealings on weekdays. Everything else either had little evidence to go on or the culprit was highly obvious and didn't need Nightwing to collect him when Detective Dick Grayson would be suitable.

He balanced on the edge of the roof and fiddled with the hair falling into his face. He needed a cut sometime soon.

“Hey, we have movement in this building off Cedar Ave,” Barbara’s voice slid through. “Someone check it out. It’s been boarded for a year.”

Dick clicked his tongue and started on his way. He dropped down a close enough vantage point, eyeing the sides of the building he could spot. It was fully boarded up from every vantage point he could see, a sign near the front depicting that it was set for demolition soon. A sky rise office building was going to be shot up in its place.

He wondered how long that would last.

So many people tried to tug all the glistening and gleaming shine of Metropolis into Gotham before they caved and turned it back into a black concrete jungle. He walked along the edge of the perimeter, skinnying through a cluster of trees. He moved his hand to his earpiece when a rattling inside caught his attention.

He dropped to a squat.

Then whirled around, his leg kicking into the stomach of the person who’d edged up behind him.

Bruce barely grunted but he winced enough that it was obvious he’d been caught off guard. Kill Bill sirens screamed in Dick’s mind. He took a step back, dropping into a stance. He flexed his hands, pulling out his escrima sticks.

If Bruce wanted to square off, Dick would square off.

“Relax,” Bruce said, voice gruff. “I’m not here to fight.”

“You always want to fight.” Anger was still there, deep in his chest and rising. “It’s kind of your main personality, Batman. No offense but you’d die if Gotham suddenly went clean and no one did anything aside from daytime muggings.”

Bruce didn’t say a word against that. Just grunted and went to stand at Dick’s side. Rubble scraped under their feet. The air between them was tense and only growing tenser. More confessions were burning alive in Dick’s throat and Bruce was just standing there, stiff as could be, saying nothing.

Emotionally stunted asshole.

Dick turned off his com. “You know I’m sorry I said what I said,” he said. “But only because of when I said them. The others didn’t need to hear it that way.”

Bruce’s voice shared no emotion, even as he drew his hand up to his ear and turned off his com in turn. “And I did?”

“You were an adult man,  _ Bats _ .” Dick flipped a stick in his hand. He listened out for another rattle but it came behind them, a bird pecking at the ground before flying off. “You should not have let me join you. You had every authority to do nothing when it came to Robin but you didn’t. And I didn’t care because I was raised into it, how could I care? It wasn’t until RH when I realized that you needed us there. He wasn’t even your ward. You basically kidnapped him and turned him into a child soldier because you couldn’t handle not having someone else around.”

“I’m not going to apologize for something you like to do,” Bruce snapped. “And he had issues long before I came around.”

“Yeah, and you didn’t fix a fucking thing, did you?” He fixed Bruce’s face with a level stare. The man wasn’t even looking at him but his cape scrunched against his back. “And I didn’t have anywhere else to find fun, B. You pretty much stifled me. Clubs, playdates,  _ anything _ but Robin would’ve been the appropriate thing to do.”

“You would have gone out on your own if I didn’t bring you with me,” Bruce shot back.

“Then maybe you should’ve let me go.”

Bruce’s entire body stiffened and Dick felt a swoop of vindication because he was  _ right _ . He was. Bruce didn’t have to keep him when Dick found out and started begging to join him on missions. He could have sent him off to a more stable family that would let him get his energy off in safe controlled ways, rather than teach him how to hunt down the man who destroyed his life.

He didn’t have to turn Dick into him.

He did it anyway. And he refused to stop.

They stood in mediated silence before splitting up and covering opposite sides of the building. Dick found an opening, just between two blocks of wood against a window. It was too high for the average person to slip through. Still he climbed the wall and skinnied himself inside, hissing when a nail just barely scratched the edge of his cheek. No blood. He’d still go for a tetanus shot after patrol. In a place like Gotham, they were common as fuck and stupid easy to get.

He just had to show up at a twenty-four hour pharmacy and ask.

He searched all four floors, silently and easy, before dropping to the second floor. A nest of rats were plopped on top of each other in the center of the room, a few abandoned empty bottles that smelled way too much like urine to be comfortable, scattered around them. He watched one rat shuffle out of the pile, knock a bottle on its way out and disappear through a hole in the ground near the wall.

Ah.

Okay.

He moved his hand to his earpiece. “It’s just rats, Oracle. Place is totally boarded up, set for demolition. Only entrance is up on the third floor and you have to be flexible as fuck to slip through anyway.”

Her voice turned teasing. “How’d you get in then?”

He rolled his eyes. “I am a flexible man.” He walked back up to the third floor and slipped through the entrance again, almost falling straight to the ground before he caught himself on a board. “ _ Super flexible _ ,” he grunted, trying to find that latch he’d used to climb before. His muscles burned but he caught the edge and groaned as his fingers slipped and he had to tighten his grip just around his fingertips.

“Sure sounds like it,” Barbara teased.

Climbing down, he finally dropped to the ground and sighed. Checking himself over, he didn’t find any rips or signs of snagged injuries and relaxed. 

He scaled the closest wall and found himself looking face-to-face with Bruce once more. It was more shocking than it normally would’ve been. The streetlights, usually dim, were bright against his back, illuminating him like the cut-scene before a showdown fight between the hero and the enemy.

“Surprised you didn’t leave,” Dick said. “What, I’m too much a pervert to be able to do my duty properly? You gonna double check?”

Bruce grimaced. “Them together, I understand, he said. “I don’t understand why  _ you’re  _ there  _ with _ them.”

Dick snarled. “Your best love stories are with villains and thieves, okay? I’m not taking shit from you.”

“At least mine are age appropriate.”

Dick glowered at him. If Bruce kept fighting back on him, he was going to start wailing on him. Maybe he’d lose, maybe Bruce would choke him to death before he could back off, but  _ no _ . No, he was  _ tired _ of having to justify his love life to people who refused to get over it. Nothing was stopping him from being happy, from making  _ them _ happy and he was  _ exhausted _ .

“I loved them from day one and it’s perfectly  _ fine _ that it turned deeper than that but I  _ never _ did anything to them when they were young,” he hissed, venom spitting from his lips. “I am  _ not _ that kind of person and  _ fuck you _ for insinuating I ever could be.” He jabbed his fist at Bruce. “Do you want to fucking know how it happened? Or are you too busy sitting on your high fucking horse to imagine that any of this happened to be consensual?”

Bruce pulled back, about as ready to fight as Dick felt when Tim’s voice.

“Um, starters, if you’re going to argue, maybe turn off the coms?” Dick winced and Bruce went stiff. “Second, we need backup. Riddler just dropped another bunch of puzzle bombs everywhere. And…” Tim’s voice faltered and then came back in a pained whisper. “It’s a fucking lot, guys.”

* * *

They made it to the building in record time. Tim had called everyone and they had split up quickly to partner up with whatever place happened to be quickest to reach. Each building so far had been empty of the man so it stood to reason that he would be at this one.

“Scarecrow!” Kate’s voice yelled out. “We’ve got him on the rocks. He’s the one who helped round up the hostages.” Over the com, he could hear the man scream out in pain, Kate snapping at Jason to ease off a little. “Red Hood’s gathering intel.”

“Make sure he doesn’t kill him,” Bruce said.

“No promises, Bats,” Jason hissed and another choked garble sounded.

Children, Tim had said, dozens of children, gathered up for ransoms. It made sense now that he knew how they’d been grabbed. Scarecrow needed funds to make his toxins. Riddler likes puzzles.

It was always so easy to get him to join in the fun.

He grabbed the tablet in front him. Riddles, crosswords, anagrams - a dozen games, a dozen toys to play with and if he so much as pressed the wrong button, they’d all be gone. Lives shattering before their eyes.

Again and again.

This is why the job was necessary.

“Crosswords!” Dick shouted at him, reaching over to smash the button and Bruce pulled back.

“How could you possibly-”

“BECAUSE IT’S DUKE!” he screamed, pointing at a flash of light that vanished as it neared the door.

He hit the crosswords game and a green bouncing question mark slid across the screen before fading away. The game began to play again. Bruce’s heart slowed as he focused in. It was incredibly difficult with Dick shaking next to him.

“He’s fine,” Bruce bit out, as he answered the first question. “He  _ will _ be fine.”

The timer clacked down.

He answered the second question, fingers shaking no matter how much he’d tried to keep himself calm. Hadn’t it been like this before? A dozen questions, empty answers, and a boy eager to save almost burning to a crisp with everyone else. He’d lived, suffering no real damage and it had been a miracle through and through.

Villains played with him like a toy.

He was a child.

“It’s Thursday,” Dick said quickly, reaching over and typing the letters in before Bruce could stop him. The screen glowed green once more. “The day he answered all his questions.”

Dick leaned into his space. His breathing was pained and hard. Across the way, heat signatures were vanishing. Eventually someone would notice. Dick tapped in the fourth question and then the fifth. The screen kept glowing green. His fingers faltered.

A single tear dripped down onto the screen.

Bruce’s stomach tightened. “The heat signatures are moving,” he said slowly. “He’ll be fine.”

“Two minutes.” Dick wasn’t listening, that much was clear, his finger hovered over the keypad. “Two minutes, five questions. What is it, what-” He tapped in. “January.”

January.

The month his parents finally succumbed to the poison that had driven them wild and crazed.

The bait was clear. It was a reminder.  _ Hello, Duke. Here I am. Let’s play, shall we? _

If the Joker was his opposition, the Riddler was Duke’s. A man who refused to be bested in any puzzle, any game, any showboat display of smarts versus someone who’d trained himself specifically to beat the man before he could come in and destroy them all.

He should’ve let Duke answer the questions the first time.

Dick’s fingers were shaking.

The heat signatures vanished, only one left that was migrating the building far away from where the children had been clustered. Bruce exhaled. “It’s over, they’re out, they’re-”

A flash of light caught his eyes then it vanished once, heading right back in.

Dick’s entire body fell frozen beside him, eyes going wide behind the mask and then he was gone. Jumping down to the door Duke had vanished through without hesitation. It egged at him to follow, to drag them both out but the timer turned red and he still had two questions left.

Two questions and they would survive.

He looked down and answered the next question.  _ Fake royalty. _ Duke. The timer grew large and imposing, laughing at him with it’s heavy red beat.

_ Perchance to __? _

To dream.

Too obvious.

It was always too obvious and never right when it came to Duke. His powers declaring him a meta, an incorrect answer to the question of who he was. His capacity insisting he needed to be trained when he could hold his own. His spontaneity playing him a reckless child desperate for answers when he was a smart person who could find them so easy and just lacked the patience to wait for others to do it for him.

The answer laid hidden in front of Bruce’s eyes. A secret between Duke and a man who couldn’t stand to be beaten. He glanced up, quick, barely a second, saw heat signatures converging while one emerged and then vanished, and looked back down. Heart hammering. Whether one of them managed to escape, that meant the other was still in there and he couldn’t be sure the person who vanished wasn’t Edward.

_ Perchance to what? _

The timer flashed five.

“Signal, what is-”

The building exploded.

His voice caught in his throat as he stood, helplessly to the side.

“It’s naughty to cheat!” Riddler’s voice echoed from the screen as it flashed red and it made sense why he had chosen the one night Duke was off-duty.

They were always supposed to fail without him.

“B-tm-n!”

Bruce’s heart restarted. “Signal?”

“Bat-m-n!” Duke’s voice edged out. His com was giving out. “B-hi-nd!”

Bruce dropped the tablet. The screen cracked, red glow painfully shooting up like a beacon of all his failures before it turned black. He ran down to the back of the building, finding Duke and Dick holed up together amongst all the rubble.

Dick was slumped. The back of his costume had been burned off, red pulsating wounds dripping down his skin as he struggled to keep himself upright, still trying to protect Duke from the blasts as though they were echoing in his mind, a repetition.

Bruce understood the feeling all too well.

He grabbed the bandages from his pouch. Duke snatched it up.

“The kids,” he breathed, as he shoved his helmet up. “They’re by the trees, near the water fountain. I kept him distracted while I moved them but he left before I could pin him down.” He plastered the bandages against Dick’s burned and bleeding back. He yelled in pain, shaking. Duke hissed then whispered soothing words, affectionate words that seemed to break through Dick’s hazy eyes and laboured breathing. He gathered Dick close to him and stood up. His helmet snapped shut. “Make sure they’re safe. I got it from here.”

Bruce faltered where he stood as Duke ran off, light bursting under his feet and gliding them safely away.

“My he-ro,” Dick’s voice slurred through the coms, cracked and half broken. Duke’s laugh echoed back, bordering wheezing and panicked.

Bruce grappled off towards the park.

* * *

“It was scream,” Duke said at Bruce’s side. He’d walked over when Bruce arrived, shaking as he did so. His hands still wouldn’t stop trembling. “He said it when he broke my arm during that whole Us vs You fiasco. Perchance to scream.”

“Oh,” Bruce said faintly.

“Yeah.” Duke crossed his arms, his hands gripping his skin so tight, the skin paled despite its tone. He kept shaking. “He’s such an asshole.”

Leslie pulled back. She’d come to assist Alfred with helping fix Dick up seconds after Duke had arrived. He’d passed out shortly after Duke had run off then woke up when they put him on the cot. His wounds were blistering and breaking open and every time he resurfaced he woke up shaking and fighting back and split them even further.

“You have to stay still,” Leslie insisted, pinning him down with grave reluctance as he shoved against her and cried out.

Alfred refilled his IV. A few minutes later, he quieted down, eyes fluttered shut. She rewrapped a bandage that had gone loose in his struggling. Alfred took away the supplies, settling them down as he wrapped an arm around her shoulders. She sighed deeply, turned her face into his shoulder and inhaled him in.

“You guys are cute,” Duke laughed. His voice skipped a beat, faltering and breaking. “Is he- is he okay?”

“As long as he stays still, he’ll be fine,” Leslie clipped. She and Alfred stepped apart, both of them shedding their gloves and masks. “He’s very lucky. Considering how close he was, the damage isn’t that deep.”

“He tried to pull me back,” Duke said. “It caught me by surprise, I didn’t have time to-”

“Do breathe, Master Duke,” Alfred said, placing a hand on his shoulder. Duke stilled under the touch. “No one is blaming you for his injuries. Master Dick’s wounds are his own fault in this instance. He’ll be fine.”

Leslie pulled on another pair of gloves and snapped her fingers. “Come on. Let’s get those grazes cleaned, okay?”

Duke nodded as he walked over to her and sat down at Dick’s side, shedding his shirt and letting her clean the wounds on his arms without any complaint or hisses. His eyes didn’t stray once from Dick’s form.

Alfred stood at Bruce’s side, taking in the sight with him. “Most of the damage is regulated to his upper back. He should be fully recovered in three weeks, a month at the latest. Nerve damage shouldn’t be too extensive, Master Bruce. He’ll be up on his feet in no time.”

“That’s good, Alfred.”

“If that’ll be all, I think I shall fetch us all some tea.” Bruce gave a slight nod and Alfred walked off, shoes clacking against the ground.

He looked off to the side where Barbara was still monitoring the situations on the screens. Every so often, she glanced over her shoulder to Dick and relaxed. He couldn’t find himself to do the same. It was painful that he couldn’t.

He knew he wouldn’t rather Dick had died, he never would want that no matter the circumstances, but it was difficult to stand there and feel calm when watching Duke pull away from Leslie and turn to watch Dick with the same intensity as when he used to watch his parents through the glass window. It was difficult to feel relaxed knowing soon Damian would arrive and look at him the same way.

They were both so young.

It was an hour later when Dick resurfaced once more. He hissed but didn’t shift much more than to look up at Duke’s face from his stomach.

“You’re alive!” he cried. He let out a low desperate moan. “Thank Jesus. And  _ Set _ -”

“Set?” Duke laughed, pulling out from the ball he had made himself into on the chair.

“-and Wonder Woman,” Dick finished, voice a whine.

“Wonder Woman? Diana’s your god?” Duke reached down and stroked back his hair. “Stay still, babe. You’re still pretty beat up.”

“My precious fluffy boy,” Dick whispered. “He  _ lives _ .”

“You’re so fucking high right now,” Duke whispered back.

Dick whined and lifted his head up as best he could. “Gimme- gimme kisses.  _ Kisses, _ I need kisses.”

Duke snorted and pushed his head back down. “So fucking high.” 

The door slammed open, Tim’s voice bickering with someone else’s right before he let out a pained  _ oof _ and Damian was shouting, “Richard!”

Duke waved him over and Damian bounded over, throwing himself over the railing and briefly sparring Batcow a soft pat on his way over. Duke scooted in his chair as Damian slid up next to him. He angrily tore off his gloves and smacked Dick’s face gently with the back of them.

“You  _ absolute  _ moron,” Damian snapped.

Crying without tears, Dick ignored his anger and sobbed out, “Damian?” He reached out for him and Damian caught his hand before he could move any further. “My angel faced  _ baby _ ?”

Damian went quiet. Then looked over at Duke. Duke just grinned viciously back. “He is  _ through  _ the roof right now because he wouldn’t stop moving.”

“My goodness, Richard.”

“ _ I wan _ ’  _ kisses _ .” Dick moaned. “ _ Kisses.” _

“No kisses,” Damian huffed. “Not until you heal, you self-sacrificing idiot.”

Dick whined. “I love you so much. Your face is so pretty. It’s like a little angel, oh my  _ God _ . Duke, he’s so  _ pretty _ , isn’t he so pretty?”

Duke’s grinned widened as Damian scowled at him. “He’s  _ so _ pretty.”

The back of Damian’s neck was burning red with the confessions but he settled in next to Duke on the chair. He didn’t let go of Dick’s hand and listened patiently while he rambled on and on about how much he adored them both, occasionally stopping to comment on something random like the texture of the pillow under his face.

Mumbling through his debrief, Tim shed his costume off in the corner. When Bruce nodded, processing the words spoken and feeling calm that the children were all safe, he wished Bruce a weary goodnight as he headed upstairs to one of the guest rooms to crash for the rest of the night. Alfred came back down to distribute out the teas to Bruce and Barbara, stilling at Leslie’s side as she plucked her cup off the tray and smiled warmly at him. The two of them then clustered back around Barbara.

He glanced back at the three in front of him. It was like they were in their own little world, completely avoidant of the people who were also in the room. They were tucked up close to one another, listening to Dick ramble on and on with patience and care, something Damian never would have had the tolerance for in anyone else. Not even Jon and there was so much Damian chose to have patience for when it came to Jon.

It was strange how easy they all were together. How Damian relaxed into Duke’s side, seeking out warmth instead of shying from. How light Duke’s laugh was. How clearly calm and happy they were together. Yet he still couldn’t stop from the annoyance he felt, the longer he watched Damian trace his thumb over the back of Dick’s hand, the longer he saw Duke lean in closer and closer, as though itching to kiss him despite his injuries.

The longer he watched, the sicker he felt.

They were happy.

And he hated himself for hating it.

* * *

Dropping his bag down by Batcow’s perch, he gave her a soft pet across her nose. She blinked her black little eyes up at him and nuzzled his hand softly. He remembered the last time she’d been outside, when the air was turning chilly, fall stepping into winter. Damian was worried about her getting cold so he gave her one last day outside before she’d go back to being sheltered indoors. She’d walked across the yard as far as the pen Alfred set up would allow and then laid down on top of Damain’s legs. He pet her softly as Alfred the Cat pranced around and sat on top of her head.

Titus joined them soon after.

It was adorable.

Damian was such a firecracker it was ridiculous to think of animals bending to his loving will but they did.

Duke took a quick picture of her and sent it to Damian. No doubt after such a rough night, he’d need a little pick-me-up during his morning classes. They’d spent most of the night with Dick. Duke had sent Damian home at three and stayed another half hour before he retreated home with Barbara.

Even though he knew he was cutting it close enough as it was, he still stopped by the manor. He just wanted to check on Dick before his classes started that afternoon.

He was still asleep in the cot, arms up to stop him from rolling over. He was still on his stomach but he was awake, idly thumbing through his phone. He looked up, hissing lightly at the shift, then brightened at the sight of Duke.

“Hey,” he said. He dropped his phone under his pillow and reached out for him. Duke caught his hand and gave it a squeeze. “Don’t you have class?”

“Don’t  _ you _ have work?”

He rolled his eyes. “I called in sick. Jim’s seen the news, he knows what happened. But Babs said she’d make sure he fed some bullshit to my captain for me.”

Duke stroked his hair back. “That’s nice of her.”

“Yeah.” Dick closed his eyes and leaned into the soft touches. “She said we looked gross last night and I wouldn’t shut up about wanting to kiss you?”

“You did not,” Duke laughed. “I have videos.”

“Delete them,” Dick said, without heat. “That’s slander.”

“Can’t be if it’s true,” Duke shot back and sat down in the chair at Dick’s side.

Dick fixed him with a look. “Seriously, sweetheart. You didn’t have to come. Bruce isn’t going to kick my ass when I’m clearly not capable of kicking back.”

“That’s not why I’m here, dumbass.” Duke kissed the top of his head. “I’m here because I love you,” he murmured into Dick’s hair. “And it’s because I love you that I’m telling you that you  _ can’t _ keep trying to throw yourself into danger all the time. I had it. I was in the middle of creating a light shield. You didn’t need to chase me.”

Dick sighed. “I didn’t- I just.” He squeezed his eyes shut. “I just couldn’t risk it.”

“I’m photokinetic, darling. I saw the explosion coming long before you grabbed me and dragged me out.” Duke sighed and leaned into the back of the chair, still holding Dick’s hand. He stroked the calloused skin. “It’s not fair for you to not want us to get hurt and then throw yourself into harm’s way all the time. We don’t want you getting hurt either.”

He licked his lips. “Damian is really pissed with you.”

Dick snorted. “Figures. I’ve done that about a dozen times with him.”

“Yeah, he mentioned,” Duke said.

“You think Rinksy was bad?” Dick craned his head up. “There was this one  _ asshole _ during my Batman days. Wanted Robin so bad, he took a bunch of kids, drugged them up and dressed them up. Then made them do the most  _ lewd _ and  _ horrible  _ things to each other while they were so fucked up. He sent it out, said he’d keep doing it if the real Robin didn’t show up.”

Duke whistled low, his stomach churning. “Jesus fuck.”

Dick voice was thick as he whispered, “I know.” He closed his eyes and went quiet for a few seconds before he continued on. “I didn’t want him to get hurt so I- I told him we’d think of something else. Asshole was a meta. Controlled shadows. I couldn’t be sure of our abilities to deal with it head on.

“I hated that during my Batman days. Always so shitty compared to Bruce.” He shook his head and nearly buried his face back into pillows. “He comes up with a thousand different plans in a second and I’m still struggling to formulate something on the backburner.”

Protests came to Duke’s lips but he held them back. It wasn’t self-loathing coming out through Dick’s words. He spoke, calm and uncaring. So Duke held back all the things he wanted to say and waited patiently for him to continue instead.

“Damian - God, he was a little shit but he was a little shit with morals. Took off in the middle of the day when I couldn’t stop him and went to go get swallowed up by darkness.” Dick trembled lightly. “I was so  _ fucking terrified _ . I didn’t know what he had planned, he left some note about it but it didn’t really say shit, so I just- freaked out. Found him through that tracker on his suit and then just- went kind of insane. Almost died from blood loss.”

He groaned and pushed himself up. Duke shot to his feet but Dick just sat up, slightly hunched over, lips pulled back in a grimace. He pushed back his shorts and pointed at a long thick scar he’d had for as long as Duke had known him. It was white, pigment long since lost, slightly raised when you ran your finger over it. It ran from the top of his thigh and stopped just short of his knee.

“This was the cost of me wanting to protect him.” He gestured loosely to his back. “This is just the cost of me wanting to protect you. I have dozens of costs for everyone. I don’t care though. You can’t make me.” Duke’s stomach clenched at the words. “I’d rather be scarred from head to toe and forced to bleed forever than let any of you suffer.”

Duke shook his head and caught Dick’s hands in his face. “One, you really should still be laying down. And two-” His breath caught in his throat and he closed his eyes, unable to force the words out while Dick looked up at him with total sincerity. “You can’t do that to us. We don’t want you suffering either. It’s not fair. It’s not fair, Dick. You can’t make us accept that.”

“I know.” Dick closed his eyes. His hand reached up to cup Duke’s wrist. “I know. You’re both so capable but I can’t stand it. I couldn’t even stand it with the others and I didn’t want to come home to them at the end of the day as much as I do with you.”

“How can you do that if you’re dead?”

Dick laughed, the sound so soft and barely audible behind his tired smile. “I’d figure it out.”

“Asshole,” Duke murmured. He kissed Dick’s forehead, his nose, his cheeks, all so gentle. “I don’t want to fuck a ghost.”

“I’m  _ trying _ ,” Dick promised. His voice was strained, wavering, cracked. “I am. I just want to give you two everything and I can’t do that if you’re gone.”

“Focus on the things we don’t have.” Duke stroked Dick’s cheeks with his thumbs. “We’re already alive, you don’t need to keep trying to give us that.” He pressed his forehead to Dick’s. “Please, Dick. I’m serious. You don’t know how scared I was. I’m tired of watching people I love die.”

Dick shook his grip. Apologies were already spewing to his mouth but Duke cut him off with a kiss.

He’d seen the explosions happening just as Dick had grabbed the back of his suit and started pulling him out the door. His light shield, something he’d worked on for months because he knew it’d be more vital than anything else he could do, had already been in the works but Dick’s grip had caught him off guard. He’d just barely gotten back up something thin and enveloping as Dick had thrown him to the ground and shielded him with his body.

And then he’d slumped flat, Duke’s shield shattering with the force of the explosion, Bruce’s voice echoing in his ear before it was silenced with a crashing boom of fire and bricks.

He’d gone flat, Duke’s head tucked into his chest, because he’d never let anyone burn when he could take their place on the stake instead. He wasn’t moving but a strangled noise came out of his throat and all Duke could hear was the final steps of his parents' transformation. That strangled, garbled sound as they vanished and monsters slid into their place.

His stomach had dropped, he’d grown so cold and he saw nothing but endless, endless pain and then he was awake again and pushing Dick off him, cradling him before his back could hit the ground and pick up more dirt and rubble into his already oozing wounds. They were bleeding profusely. He couldn’t have ripped off his gloves faster when he got to the manor.

He didn’t want that blood on him.

He wanted to pretend it wasn’t there. That made it easier to think of Dick as fine, as going to live, instead of crying out in anguish, sound on the verge of death, as Alfred and Leslie tried to pin him down, because no matter what Dick was a fighter and Duke wasn’t there. He couldn’t see him and fuck, if he wasn’t going to follow him to death’s door, if he wouldn’t follow any of them to death’s door.

He’d force himself to be the first one through if he had to.

So Duke had come to his side and held his hands while the three in the Cave worked in tandem to get him calm and medicated. Then Barbara retreated back to her spot in front of the monitors and Leslie went to work stitching up the parts of him that Alfred had cleaned and bandaging the still bubbling burns.

Cleaned up, he didn’t look as bad but in the moment, it had been a horror show. Blood poured down his back. He seemed caked in it and Duke had been so terrified of the idea that he might walk into his home and not see Dick’s jacket on the coat rack, that their closet would be devoid of his clothes.

That his number would stop responding to his texts.

It hit too close to home.

Duke pulled back and rested his forehead against Dick’s once more. “You can’t leave us like that so don’t try again.  _ Please _ . I shouldn’t have to beg you not to die.”

“I’ll try not to,” Dick promised. “I swear I’ll try to stop.” He grabbed Duke’s hands as he stepped back and kissed along his knuckles before dropping them into his lap. “Help me back down?”

Duke nodded, helping Dick ease back onto his stomach with as little pain as possible. He hung around for as long as he could before he was definitely toeing the line from being just a little bit late to why even bother going before he finally let go of Dick’s hands and stood to leave.

He whispered loving words into his hair as Alfred refilled his IV and left to the image of Dick falling sweetly asleep, a smile across his face.

* * *

Dick choked on another couple of pain pills. The bitterness overtook his tongue and he washed it down twice, trying to rinse out his mouth without vomiting. Morphine always gave him a dry mouth. Dry mouth and pills did not mix well, saliva not there to mask the taste, to let him drop it to the back of his throat before he could wash it down with a quiet drink of water and he always found himself gagging on them.

When the medication kicked in, he rose up and tried not to bend too much. After a week, his skin had started healing well. He still had another week to go but most of it was regulated to the burns he’d sustained and not the scratched and bashed openings of his skin. Some stitches had been removed that morning. With a promise that he’d come back or go to Leslie’s office in the city, Alfred was letting him go home.

He was grateful for that. He was tired of laying down in a cot with nothing to do, missing his loves and listening to silence. In the years before, the Cave had always been much more active. More people lived in the manor. Now they were all older and pursuing their own lives without Bruce. Barbara didn’t even need to come down each night, her own house set up perfectly fine for her work, but he had the sneaking suspicion that she felt pity for Bruce and his abandonment issues. When it came down to it, his family was leaving one by one. As much as they all wished it, Alfred would not last forever.

Eventually he’d be alone.

Perhaps that’s why he dragged in child after child after child.

_ Get some therapy then _ , Dick thought as he squatted to gather up his things.

“Alfred letting you go home?”

Dick glanced up. Bruce wasn’t clad in suit nor the underclothes he wore so the spandex wouldn’t stick to his skin. Instead he was dressed in his office casual wear, a loose scarf around his neck that he was slowly unwrapping.

He stood up. “Yeah. I promised not to do anything stupid.” He looked away. “Thanks for letting me stay to recover. Nice of you considering…  _ everything _ .” Bruce didn’t say anything as Dick packed up. He stripped the cot of its sheets and redressed it for someone else’s use. He stepped off to the side, checking his phone. “Damian’ll be here in an hour. I’ll wait outside.”

“Why?”

The question cut off everything in him. His skin, blistered and bleeding under bandages, turned cold and frozen instead of hot and volatile.

“Kind of a vague question,” he said.

“Just tell-”

“It’s none of your business,” Dick snapped. Anger slapped through him fast and left him shivering and wishing he was anywhere else. He always found himself stumbling around, feeling like a child in Bruce’s presence, some sad and poignant misery bottled up in a four feet frame trying to sneak a cookie and getting caught. “It’s not. Stop asking.”

“Dick-”

“You used to trust me with your life! Why can’t you trust me now?”

“Because they were children!” Bruce hissed. “How am I supposed to feel clear and fine about this situation with that information?”

“Well, that’s your problem!” Dick gripped his bag tightly. “You didn’t have to push me. You could’ve just let me end it at the fact that they’re legal. This is what happens when you ask questions you don’t want to know the answers to!”

Bruce glared at him but said nothing. His frame was imposing. Despite him being several feet away, the chasm between them huge and unending, Dick felt his shadow looming over him. He was a child with his hand caught in the cookie jar and Bruce was the voice of disappointment and punishment.

“We’re  _ happy _ . Why can’t you just live with that?” Dick said. “Knowing everything isn’t going to make you feel any better about that. I  _ fucking _ know that because I know you, Bruce. Why do you think I never fucking said anything about it?”

The silence bled louder between them.

He closed his eyes.

He was tired. He was so tired. He just wanted to go home and listen to Damian berate him while Duke fretted about the state of his back. He wanted to try to gather them both back to bed instead of the couch where they’d both probably put themselves to sleep for the next couple weeks to avoid touching his injuries. He wanted to be alive and in love and not have to beg for acceptance from people who were never going to adjust.

It wasn’t his job to defend himself against something that wasn’t a problem.

“You want to know why but you don't want to know  _ how _ ,” he said. “Maybe you should start with that one.”

Bruce looked him over. To everyone else, they’d see him neutral faced, a stone of a man. To Dick, he could see the ever so silent shifts in Bruce’s disposition. The relaxing of his shoulders, the slight perk to his eyes, the curiosity that slipped through him at Dick’s words. He was still on edge, he’d never not be, but he was calmer now. Interest was growing over his trembling indignation.

There was no evidence that what Dick was going to say would change his mind. He knew Bruce was conflicted on that. Did he want his mind changed about the whole situation? Did he want to accept it as easy as others had or did he want to spend the rest of his days with disappointed anger bubbling under his skin at the mere mention of them together?’

Dick waited for Bruce to come to his own conclusion.

Finally, he gestured loosely, scarf wrapped around his hand. The material fluttered with the motion. “How then? Tell me.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> so many words per chapter. i really should've split the last one out but hey, i really liked writing this chapter out so that's good! thanks for reading! this whole thing is 92 pages so far, so i'm kind of curious to see where it'll be when i'm actually finished.
> 
> [links](https://hk44.carrd.co/)

**Author's Note:**

> A year of working on this fic between a dozen of other things and I finally decided to just post what I have so far. Prepare for a lot of drama and hopefully a year end conclusion? That's when I've got it scheduled to be completed, but I'm a full-time worker also studying for the CPA and working on original stuff so who even knows at this point.
> 
> I also plan to proofread what I have for another DC fic (Duke/Damian, but not fully focused on the ship, trans!Damian obvi) and upload that sometime this week too! I miss writing fic and hopefully this will spur me back into it. No promises though, but I really do hope you guys enjoyed this part!


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